To trust or not to Trust
by Pukah
Summary: The sisters have got it with Chris and his 'future consequences', they want to know what he is up to. Unfortunatly spells usually backfire in the Charmed universe.
1. How to piss Piper

Hi!

This my first english fanfic, so I'm pretty afraid with the result. I've tryed my best to have it written without any kind of damage to the English language, but please don't sue me if something offends your eyes. Well, you can sue me, becuse it will be my fault, but don't send me any kind of cursed mails or so.

Telling the truth, I'm also happy with the creature (I wouldn't be posting it if that wasn't the case) so please, read and review even if it's to say that I should be banned to write in english ever again.

The history turns aound Chris and how his true identity is revealed... which isn't a very original thing, I know. Sorry, if you like it I swear to do something more original the next time... What about Leo wearing a can-can outfit as a way to fight Barbas with his worse fears?... Ok, stop with the babling and on with the fic.

* * *

'Home sweet home...' whispered Chris entering the small room that was his _place to laid_ in this time. 

It was late and he was soacked with water due to the rain that had been falling the whole night. Rain that he hadn't been able to avoid because of an absolutly pointless meeting with a _muud demon_ who hadn't been able to tell him nothing about the damn _whatever_ that had/was going to turn his brother into the dark side.

Tired and cold, Chris sat in the bed wondering if some dry clothes and a little sleep would cheer him up.The obvious answer was a big NO, but he could try anyway and...

_Leo!!_ Piper voice called Leo in his head. Sure the call was not for him (after that unfotunate event with the 'Oh so Charming Prince Charmed' she had made it clear that he was not welcomed anymore) but one of the handy things he had learned from Wyatt was how to bug the whitelighters calls. Handy for him now, handy for Wyatt in the future.

_Leo!! _Wonderful, and now the son of a bitch was so busy with his elder duties that he wasn't even answering to his former wife. There were things that would never change.

_Leo, get your damn and so blessed ass down here!_!

Chris sweared deeply before orbing out without even change into some dry clothes.

---000---

Phoebe ducked a demon claw and rolled to her side before the critter, quite thick but pretty scary with the big fangs and all that pointy stuff coming from it's head, could attack again. She wasn't fast enough so it slashed her leg.

-Ow! Leo! Hey! Come here? The manor!! In the attick?...Damn it!

From behind her, Paige throwed tkally grams old potions table to the demon, off balancing him enough for Phobe to take a little advantage.

-Piper, it may be a good time for you to vanquish this thing!

-I'm trying, I'm trying! - but the more she hitted the demon with his powers the less those seemed to affect him.

-Not working!

-I see... - Piper kneeled down to avoid a pointy thing that wasn't a horn but had come from the demon head. - What the...? oh, crap! Leo, get your damn and so blessed ass down here!!

The critter got up, sending Phoebe to the ground and turning around to the Book of shadows, ignoring Pipers intends to hit him.The voulme lifted from under it's fingers before the demon could grab it.

-Book! - Paige comjured the book and hidded behind the sofa, hastly looking though it's pages. - Let's see... pointy nasty demon, pointy nasty...

-Pointy nasty demon? Is that a joke? - Yelled her older sister ducking again.

-C'mon, how I'm supposed to call him? Freddie? And why the hell isn't there an Index in the book?

Piper turned to her with a scowl but was interrupted by Phoebe.

-Er... girls, Freddie is getting angry, I can sense it...

-More?

-Sorry, did I said angry? - Phoebe went down to avoid another demon claw and rolled over herself. - I meaned hungry!!

Before any of the charmed could found something to say about it, a couple of blue balls appeared in a corner of the attic. Not so sure of what it was, the demon decided for the wisest way to go and attacked the new thread with an old one. It grabbed Phoebe and threw her across the room, to the corner where, fortunatly for her, she landed in soft by, unfortuantly for Chris, landing on the whitelighter.

-Great timing L... Chris? What are you doing here?

-Playing 'Twister'.

The youg man sighed, trying to disentangle himself from the witch, which was pretty hard to do, in fact.

-I don't remember calling for...

-Phoebs!! - the sister turned around only to see the demon trampling towards them. Out of instincts, the woman took Chris and started to levitate, but the whitelighter had his own plans for he waved furiously his arm, throwing Freddie to the ceiling from where it fell with a loud THUD into the floor.

For a loooong second neither the sisters nor Chris said a word, wondering if Freddie was up for more. Finally Phoebe got up, followed by Chrs, and both approached the critter cautiously.

-Is he... dead? - asked Paige from behind the sofa, still looking through the book.

-I don't think so... but he seems knock out for a while.

-You sure? - now it was Piper, holding what little reminded from grams old table like if it was a baseball bat.

-Pretty sure.

Not reassured at all, Piper smashed repeatedly the demons head with her self improvised new weapon.

-Better now? - asked Phoebe once her sister stoped.

-Yeah... a little – she answered panting before turning at Chris.- And why the hell are you here? Are you neurotizing about some new evil plan? Or are you planning one by your self?

The young man rolled his eyes Paige.

-I kind of heard you calling Leo.

Phoebe snickered, she was a little lightheaded from all the punches and flying through the attic.

-Lucky you that she've stopped calling for him half nude and ready for a long hot...

-Stop that! - exclaimed both, Chris and Piper, at the same time.

The whitelighter turned to the third sister while trying to block lots of scary images out of his brain.

-Have you found something useful?

-Not yet... but I guess you can tell me something... seeing as you seem to be memorising it.

-I'm not memorising the book... - Paige's eyebrow raised nearly into the ceiling, what made him chuckle. - But maybe I should...

-No, you shouldn't. - Piper interrupted him.- What you should do right now is leave.

-What...?

-No _What_..? to me. I told you and I meaned it, get the hell out of here and don't come back.

Chris looked at her with desbilief. Sure, he had fast forgotten her ban... but because they were in danger!

-Oh great... no 'Thanks for save our ass, Chris', then?

-We didn't asked you to come.

-Well, unfortunatly I'm your whitelighter and that's my...

-That's your nothing... Leo's talking with the other elders, you're gonna get fired into your time pretty soon.

-Right... Leo... so he can be again your whitelighter and what? Keep not coming when you call him?

Phoebe walked towards Paige and the book just to get away from the fight. First because she didn't wanted to get caught in the middle of the discussion, and second because Piper quickly rising anger at Chris was giving her a huge headache.

-He shouldn't be messing with Leo and Piper's affaires. - whispered Paige.

-Yeah... he'll better keep in check what he says.

Back in the middle of the room, Piper glared at Chris a few seconds and then took a deep breath.

-Look, I'm not going to discuss Leo's duties, but he's and elder now and...

-And what? He's allowed to forget his family?

-He's not forgeting his family!!

The empath witch cringed at Pipers outburst, the whitelighter had hit a nerve there...

-Why? You say that for what happened last saturday? If I were you I wouldn't count on it as a token of his love...

Piper slapped Chris, which took him in such surprise that allowed Phoebe to sense something from the whitelighter, something deep and strong. But whatever it was, disappeared even before she could understand it.

-Get OUT of here... NOW.

The young man looked at the oldest Charmed with a blank expression and orbed out.


	2. So what? Do we trust him or not?

First (I forgot this in the first chapter). I'm not Aaron Spelling nor whoever else owns the series, so I don't own any character from the Charmed show.

About spoilers... you'll better don't read it unless you've seen the 6th season of Charmed. Well, you can if you don't mind discovering things of the plot, because I'm trying to respect as much as I can the story up to the 12th episode or so and make the fic understandable even if you don't know a thing about that season.

I must say that I'm absolutly flattered

All the reviews pictured that big smile in my face and my head has growed so much that I can't barely enter my room... which is why I haven't updated this yet...

Okay... In fact I wrote this part yesterday or so, but I wanted to go on a little with the story in my laptop because while I was writing it the characters started to act funy and develop their own sub plots and twists so I tryed to write enough to be sure that what I had wrote didn't crash with what they had in mind. But isn't it great when your characters start playing and doing their own lives?

Any way, thaaaaaanks for all the reviews:

**Jennie**: Yours was the first and the longest. I will look for a Beta reader from now, and while I find one, I'll try my best to write it right. And about the plot... I'm really trying to do something original in spite of the general argument being pretty common. You'll see.  
Thank you too for being so honest about my english, it flattered me for the compliments and made me enjoy the 'critics', I'm pretty self-educated in this language so I really need someone saying 'Hey, it's good, but you need to improve!'

**piper wyatt-halliwell 1973**: Thanks, that's one of those things that happened by themselves. I mean, sure, Piper is a good person, but I don't think that's a good idea to piss her off. In fact Chris was lucky of surviving that outburst.

**Shina**: I'm glad you think that's interesting. I'm doing my best with the english, thanks for the compliment.

**Christine Marquez**: I'll try to keep it, thanks. And _Sir, yes Sir!_ here is the next chapter.

**Lark**: Yep! Poor Chris... I'm not going to spoil nothing about the story but _poor Chris_ would have been a good summary, too. Anyway I hate overdramatic stuff, so I'll jut try to keep the drama in check so it's enough but not too much.

**heather**: Yay! Thank you, I can't post every day probaly, but I'll do my best

* * *

Previously in Buffy the V... erm... I meaned ... in Charmed: 

_Piper slapped Chris, which took him in such surprise that allowed Phoebe to sense something from the whitelighter, something deep and strong. But whatever it was, disappeared even before she could understand it._

_-Get OUT of here... NOW._

_The young man looked at the oldest Charmed with a blank expression and orbed out._

* * *

After Chris was already gone, Phoebe turned to Piper, confused. The guy was annoying but she had never felt her sister that angry. In theory she shouldn't even be able to sense her sister at all, but some strong feelings were able to cross the barrier that the potion had build between them, and that was a hell of a strong feeling... that curiously enough wasn't directed only to the future-boy... However, before she could find any sense in her sister's messed feelings, Paige jumped from the floor showing them an entry in the book.

-Got it! Listen, 'Icky Pointy Demon'. - the youngest sister throwed a 'I-was-right-and-you-were-wrong' look at the other two charmed and kept reading.- A middle demon with pointy stuff in his... bla bla bla... it even comes with it's own vanquishing spell.

-Better do it now, then. - said Piper averting her eyes from the spot in the wall that she had been deeply analyzing for some minutes.- Before he awakes.

The Charmed Ones took a look at the book and started reciting.

_Rise the powers of the three,  
may our will obeyed be.  
Destroy the pointy demon now,  
and let peace return and so._

---000---

About ten seconds later, Leo orbed into the manor full dressed with the golden elder gown.

-Blessed be.

-Bless my ass.

The elder took a second look at what was happening around him and then turned to the sisters, stunned. The Charmed Ones all along with the attic walls, ceiling and floor were covered in some sluggy stuff.

-What happened?

-Apparently grams forgot to write down a few details about a vanquishing spell. - Paige tryed to clean some of it off her face, but it was useless.

-Yeah! - Phoebe droped the Book of Shadows And Pink Demons Splashed Guts in it's place.- Like that it was more of a sploshy spell.

-Let's see... -Paige waved her hand careless. -

_What remains of the attack_

_to it's place just send it back_

-It seems - said Leo when the spell didn't worked - that the only solution is...

-You'll better not say meditate...

-In fact I was more in the line of 'clean it by yourselves'.

Phoebe glared at the elder who fighted to keep a staight face.

-Are you snickering at us?

-No, I'm not.

-Oh yes.. you're snickering at us...!

-No! By no means do I find funny seeing the legendary Charmed Ones covered in demon entrails.

-You're so funny.. isn't he funny Paige?

-Yeah... I barely can stop laughing.

-Yeah... neither do I... I will chock in my laugh anytime soon and die.

-You know what would be funny, sister?

-What?

-_Freddie's Ikky stuff_ - conjured the youngest witch gesturing towards Leo who ended full covered of it.

-You were right Paige... this is just funnier.

-HA... HA... HA... I must have mistook the place...- the elder took off the gown, trying by all means no to touch it more than necessary. - I was heading to the Halliwell sisters manor, but I think that I've just found the Marx brothers manor.

-Yeah? Well lucky us you got all dirty in the process, because now we have someone to help us with the cleaning stuff.

-Oooh... wait wait... I'm so not going to clean things for you... I mean, don't you have a whitelighter of your own to do those things?

-We did... until our older sister here fired him?

-What? - Leo turned to her ex-wife, stunned, but the witch was back to the 'wall-inspection' and apparently wasn't paying atention.

-Well... do you remember Piper telling him that she didn't wanted to see him again? He just dropped by a few minutes ago to help with the demon... seeing that you weren't available, that was kind of nice of him, in fact.

-Look, I just was...

-The thing is - Phoebe cut him off - that after all, Piper have told him to screw off and then both have started discussing and have ended yelling.

Paige just nodded at what her sister was explaining and continued.

-Then the yelling have increased, things have turned harsh and Piper has slapped Chris.

-She've what?... Why? Piper? W...What?

The witch snapped out of the wall and turned to his former husband.

- Leo... what were you saying?

-I was just wandering why the Hel...sinki have you...

_-Helsinki? I didn't knew that elders just couldn't say bad words.- whispered Phoebe._

_-Sometimes I wonder if they can even use condoms without getting excomulgated.- responed Paige._

Leo glared at both and then turned back again to his wife.... ex-wife.

-Why did you slapped Chris for...? I mean... I've wanted to do so every now and then, but anyway...

The witch stood silent for some seconds and frowned.

-I don't like him... I don't trust him. There's so many secrets... he just knows things he shouldn't know, and have you seen how does he moves around the house? And the oh so-not-reassuring fact that he seems to have a VIP class pass in the underworld...

-Yeah... it's kind of creepy... - said Paige - and the fact that Phoebs can't sense him. That's creepy too... until now the only ones she haven't been able to sense where demons. And don't forget Bianca...

-Come on... - Phoebe interrupted her sisters.- He loved Bianca, that's hardly a bad thing...

-Yeah, because being in love with an assassin witch is surely a good thing...

-More or less like marrying a demon?

Piper scowled at her wise-ass sister.

-It's diferent and you know it...anyway, what do you thing, Leo?

-Look Piper... It's not a secret that I don't trust him, principally because he got me in that damn island...

_-He said a bad word, he said a bad word..._

-But he's here to save Wyatt, isn't he? Shouldn't we be trying to help him figure out who's turning...

-That's rubbish!!

-Sorry?

-That Wyatt turning evil stuff... that's rubbish... I mean, how can you even start to believe that our son is going to turn evil?

Leo took a deep breath, he had been wondering when this discussion would be meant to be.

-Love, Wyatt being a twice blessed doesn't mean that he's going to be good, in the same way that that demon child you saved wasn't meant to be evil _per se_.

-Then what does that mean? That I'm going to be a horrible mother? Is it? That I will rise the worst evil in the history?

-I'm not saying that! It's just that as long as there's the possibility...

-Who's word do we have on it? Chris's? Because that's not very trusty.

-I know that's not very trusty but...

-But you belive what he said, isn't it? Don't you?

Leo sighed.

-I'm not sure, Piper, and that's the problem. I mean... what if the elders just send him back and it was true and we can't save Wyatt because of it?

-He has some of a point there, love.- Phoebe approached carefuly her sister. They all knew how caothique things could go when she got pissed, even without the powers of a goddess. Luckily nothing exploded in the attick and no new storm was formed in San Francisco. None appart from the currently. Instead of getting more furious, Piper's frown easied a little.

-I know... he does. But that doesn't helps us, I don't like having him as a whitelighter, we're supposed to trust our whitelighters aren't we?. And I don't wan't him near Wyatt either.

-Isn't that a little unfair?

The sisters and Leo turned to Paige who had finally managed to get rid of some of Freddie's splosh.

-What do you mean 'unfair'?

-Well... what if he is telling us the truth? What if he's here to save Wyatt? Then we'll be being a little... mmm... mean.

-Sure there's some truth in it.

Piper shrugged to both of her sisters.

-Call me cold hearted, but somehow I do really care much more about my son's security than Chris feelings. And if he was so sure about what's going to happen he could tell us something more so we can save the world decently instead of having him puppeting us around to fight stupid demons when he feels so...

-There's that thing about the messing with time.

-Well, and what's he doing? how do we know that he's not doing all this for his own good? Maybe he've done some spell to fool the book like the pseudo-blondes did, maybe he's trying to go over the demon world and is using us to get rid of the worse demons that could try to stop him? We don't even know if he's from the future for sure!

-Well, he saved my ass with the titans, didn't he?

-But we don't even know how they got free for a start.

-Now, SHE has a point there...

Paige turned angrily to Pheebs.

-You're not being very useful, you know? Will you do something apart than changing sides every few seconds?

-I'm not changing sides, lil'sis, but you all have some true here. - Phoebe pointed Leo. - I mean, Chris could actually be saying the truth, so having him around bossing us into his little killing demons jihad and turning us mad with his annoyingly neurotical insanity could mean that we'd be saving Wyatt and the humanity's future.- She turned to Piper.- On the other hand, he knows too much for just being a random common future whitelighter that... well, in fact half-whitelighter half-witch... - the Charmed One blinked and stopped on that thought, something inside her was screaming on that comment but she wasn't able to get a hold on it...

Piper snaping her fingers in her face got the witch out of it.

-Phoebe!?! Common future whitelighter that what?

-Sorry? Where was I?

-With me being right about not trusting him...

-Yeah... right... I mean that he knows too much, but again, he comes from the future, maybe he knew someone that we knew there, maybe he was a friend of Wyatt when they were younger and so he knows us, maybe he's related to us,... the only thing that proves is that he didn't came unprepared.

-He still knows too much, even if he asked future Darryl about us... there's just some stuff that's private... - Piper turned again to the wall that was starting to blush out of all the atention the witch was giving to him. - some things he wouldn't know unless he've used some kind of spell or something...

-Yeah, but that doesn't mean that he's a bad guy... just that he's obsessed with what he've come here to do... and we already knew that. However, I can't see Wyatt turning evil, and he hasn't been able to prove us that that's gonna happen, we only have his word... and seeing how easily he keeps turning things to his advantage and fooling us, see the Prince Charmed affair for more information, his word means little or nothing. I'm affraid that, as Piper said, we have no proof even that all the Titans affair was part of some twisted plan of him...

-If that's true, I'm so going to clip his wings... - growled Leo. - in fact I'm going to nail them in his neck with...

-Keep it easy Rambo-elderman, there's a big 'IF' in everythig I've said. The thing is that there's so many secrets around Chris, and he's not going to tell us nothing more than what's necessary from his point of view.

-So...

-So if we wan't to find what's wrong in order to protect Wyatt, the future, and our own mental health, we should cast a spell to learn what's he hiding.

Piper stood silent at what her sister had just said, but Paige wasn't so sure.

-Erm... didn't you told me that 'mind reading' spells weren't a good idea?

-Yesss... but we're not goint to use a 'mind reading' spell on us, we'll use a 'true spell' on Chris. I'm sure there's one in the Book of Shadows. - The witch went to the book and started flapping through it's pages.

-She's a little bit twisted, isn't she?

-Fear the power of three, elder-man...

-I wish you all stopped calling me that.

-What? With that beautiful gown you've got? No way.

Leo kind of laughed softly and Piper smiled, pretty more relaxed now that she'd been able to yell a little bit and find a solution, so Paige decided to use the little _hiatus_ to ask a question that had been nudging her since Freddie's attack and Piper's fight with Chris.

-Honey, tell me again... what said Chris that was so private and that got you so pissed?

Leo turned to her, curious, and Piper felt the anger rise again, anger and hopelessness that the whitelighter knew what she'd felt, but Leo didn't seemed to have a clue or care.

-Just... I'm not sure, Paige... in fact with all the yelling I've forget what it was about.

Her sister gave her a look of 'The hell you have' but didn't said anything else. Trying to change Leo's atention Piper turned to Phoebe who was having some rough time with the book that, for some unknown and annoying reason wasn't beeing very cooperative. It's cover keeped closing itself, snapping her fingers, and whenever she was arriving into and apparently interesting point the pages would turn blank...

-That's it... someone have been playing funny stuff with the Book of Shadows.

-Or he doesn't want you to find the spell.

The three witches looked confused at Leo.

-Well, I'm just saying that that's possible...

-Don't worry, Pheebs, - Piper took a notebook and a pen and turned to her sister. - we'll write the spell and then ask Chris what's happened to the book.

-Yeah... and after that we'll inquire him about what was he doing when Kennedy was murdered, sure he has something to do with that too.

The older Halliwell turned to her middle sister.

-In which side are you?

-I was just saying that just beacuse you're pissed with him for some very hard but easy forgetable reason doesn't makes him guilty of every single crime and disease in the world.

* * *

Ok, I'm seriously trying to write this correct. Unfortunately my mind is used to think in catalan (my language) so I've big problems constructing sentences that make some sense at all... that and the grammar, and the vocabulary, and... everything else U But as it seems that you were able tio understand me the las chapter, let's keep trying.  
I know that the guys seem to be turning here and there every few seconds, I try to find diferents expressions but I'm a little short of them.

And last but not least, I wol really appreciate if someone could **Beta-read** this story. I mean, check the grammar and the story itself before it gets published... just to be sure that people will understand it and not skip the fic because it's written in ancient Swahili


	3. How to get Piper REALLY pissed

I disclaim, you disclaim, he disclaims... Charmed is not mine, and all the characters I'm using in this fic aren't either.

First of all, I'd like to ask you for a big ovation for my lovely Beta-reader **As Always**. She've helped me with the fic, so it was more... enlgish and less bulgarian... and not only that, but she've helped me ordering the chaos that the chapter was. Mmm... do I forget something... oh, yes... Thanks!!!!

Now... about my reviewrs... you're my aire, I couldn't be doing this without you.

Shina: Yep, they're going to cast a spell... a truth spell... sighs.. just if they learned how often those kindof spells doesn't work well.

Heather: That thing about the story overshadowing the language have really touched me... thanks, it was so sweet. I'll try ro keep updating more or less regualry, I swear.

Jennie: I finnally found a beta-reader, lucky me. And about dashes... my fault. That's what we use in speeches, so I just didn't thought of checking if in english it was different... in fact it's pretty weird to read it with (') U And I'm trying to arrange the long pieces of dialog thing... I don't know if I'm doing it right, but I just try to avoid as mush as possible go on with _he said, she said, Phoebe said, Leo said_ and use diferent verbs. Thanks again for your critics, it's the best way to learn. I hope that from now the fic is easier to read.

Karen: thanks for offering, but I've already find a beta. Anyway you were very kind, so please enjoy the fic.

Brit: erm... be patient about that, there's a whole story to develop telling them who's Chris would spoil the beans too fast (did I got the 'spoil the beans' correctly?)

* * *

It was midnight.  
And it was high.  
And it was cold.  
And he wasn't crying.

Well, some of that wasn't true, at least not 100 true.  
  
Even in the Golden Gate's highest tower, it didn't seem so high. He had orbed higher once when he was a kid and Wyatt had been trying to teach him how to orb. But the rest was true... well, maybe it wasn't 12 o'clock, but it was certainly cold up there and he wasn't crying.  
  
Tears were useless and a sign of weakness that he had more than learned not to show to the world. More than that, tears would take away the pain, that's what his mother had told him years ago, that tears where like his father healing power but with the pain of the heart... and Chris didn't wanted to heal his pain. After all, pain and sorrow were what had held him until now. Hope was what inspired him, what pictured that perfect and shiny future in his head. Hope was what created his Itaca, but sorrow and grief were what gave him the strength to go on and never give up.  
  
With a deep sigh the half whitelighter shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. He had to worry about some things far more important than Piper being angry with him. For example, how was he supposed to go back to the house now? With that big ban on him entering the house, protecting Wyatt was going to be a hell of a job.  
  
'C'mon man... you can be mourning here for the eternity, you have to get up and start looking for something useful to do... '  
  
That was right, some work would distract him. Maybe he could find some new enemies in the underwolrd, some twisted plot to uncover, something very dangerous that would have his mind occupied and his feelings in tight check.  
  
The half whitelighter orbed to the underworld were it wasn't midnight, for there was no moon to rise; it wasn't high since it was the UNDER-world; It was much warmer; and he wasn't allowed to mourn.  
  
He needed to keep head clear and ready.  
  
----------  
  
_-The sun is rising and it's a beautiful morning in San Francisco, or at last that's what we suppose it's like above the clouds... Meanwhile, the city awakes covered in stormy clouds and falling rain. If you have drive somewhere this morning please take care because the Meteorological Center of San Francisco have just announced the possibilities of the storm growing into an little and annoying typhoon. The authorities has claimed that there's nothing to worry about, but also say that SF citizens should stay at home at least, until the weather gets a little better...  
_  
Leo turned off the radio and served some coffee to the sisters that were seated in the kitchen table. It had been a looong night for each and everyone of them. The Charmed Ones had been working on the spell for hours while he been doing the not-so-elderly job of cleaning up the mess in the attic.  
  
"So... how's the spell going...? " He asked as cheerfully as he could manage. Whatever he had to do he would since it allowed him to spend a few hours near Wyatt and Piper... Even if his ex-wife had been behaving absentmindedly half the night and plainly ignoring him the other half.  
  
"Written and ready to be cast the moment Chris sets a foot in this house. " Paige looked at him groggily.  
  
"That's if we're awake when he does... shit!" complained Phoebe "It's the last time I try to figure out a truth spell. I mean, for all Leo knows about it, you have to know the victims by heart to write it correctly... but if we knew anything about Chris we wouldn't be casting it...If at least we could use the one in the book... " the witch glared at the Book of Shadows "But no!, it couldn't be so easy, could it? We couldn't have a normal magical heritage... the Charmed One's center of knowledge had to declare itself in strike"  
  
-Yeah... not fair Pheebs... anyway I'm going to see if Wyatt is awake before he gets hungry.  
  
Paige looked at Piper leaving the room and waited until she was sure that the witch couldn't hear her, then she turned to Leo.  
  
"Okay Elder boy, what the hell has happened?" She asked.  
  
"Sorry?"  
  
"Not sorry us, Leo... there's something going on between Piper and you. She's been acting funny for somedays... and whatever Chris told her that got her mad, they were discussing about you."  
  
The elder looked at his sisters-in-law... in fact more sisters than anything else... and kind of... blushed deeply.  
  
"Oh, c'mon... you didn't screwed, did you" - asked Phoebe in disbelief.  
  
Leo's face turned even redder.  
  
"That's none of your..." he started.  
  
"You'll better not say it doesn't concerns us... " snapped Paige. "What the hell were you two thinking? "  
  
"Look! I don't know, ok? We were having some tea and chatting about Wyatt and suddenly... well... Okay, I don't wanna explain the rest... but it happened, and it shouldn't..."  
  
"What do you mean it shouldn't?" The youngest Halliwell cut him off, angrily.  
  
Leo closed his eyes and breathed deeply before answering.  
  
"You see, as an elder..."  
  
"Cut the elder's crap... " Paige got up and faced his ex-brother in law. "You were Piper's husband before becoming an elder, and you're definitely old enough to control your hormones and not come here and do whatever you want with my sister and then say that it's some kind of big mistake!!!"  
  
"Paige, chill out a little, will you? " Phoebe had got up also and was tossing her sister away from the elder.  
  
"Anyway he was lying there, he's not sorry that it happened, he feels awful because Piper is avoiding him... isn't that true?"  
  
Leo nodded, without ever averting his eyes from the floor. He didn't know what had happened to them that night except that he had awoke the next morning and Piper hadn't been there with him.  
  
"The thing is..." said the elder finally "she regrets what happened and she is right. She wants a life that I can't give her... and that stupid moment of lust has changed nothing. We're not together anymore... that's it."  
  
"But you love her. And she loves you. "stated Phoebe. "And this isn't only sister talking, but the empath too"  
  
"I'm afraid that's not enough."

* * *

_I'm afraid that's not enough.  
_  
From behind the kitchen door, Chris eavesdropped, listening as his aunts talked to his father and smiled bitterly. That wasn't something he'd wanted to hear.  
  
'Curiosity killed the cat, but the satisfaction brought him back' he thought, remembering an old saying that his brother used to tell him. Shamefully there was little satisfaction there, just the obvious because the plan had worked... but he already knew that. His future family started to move in the kitchen and that snapped him into reality, he had some serious work to do.

* * *

In Piper's room, the witch was cuddling her son carefully, whispering some old song her mother used to sing her when the Halliwell sisters were still kids and she was alive.  
  
And Prue too was alive.  
  
Suddenly, she felt overwhelmed with the need of talking to her older sister. It wasn't fair, after all. Prue was supposed to be there for her, to help and advice. She'd never wanted to be the oldest, who was she supposed to talk to now?  
  
She did had her sisters, and they would be willing to help her... for gods' sake, Phoebe's job was to advise people. But what she wanted now was an older shoulder to lean on, someone wiser, someone who had all the answers. Someone like her mother, or Prue... someone like Leo.  
  
In her lap, Wyatt stirred, getting her back into reality. The kid would awake soon and would be hungry, so, careful not to disturb him, Piper put him again in the cradle and went down to the kitchen for a bottle.  
  
As she was still deep down in her own problems, the witch didn't saw the silhouette that entered the room just after she had left it.  
  
The moment Piper entered the kitchen everything went quiet. Phoebe and Paige started to have staring contests with the coffee cups, and Leo was no place to be seen.  
  
"You were talking about me, weren't you? " she asked, earning a guilty look in her sisters face.  
  
"No we weren't. "Paige lied horribly.  
  
"You know, I'm not an empath and I can tell that you're lying to me... what's it?"  
  
But whatever it was no one told ever Piper because at that moment the Baby-talkie that Piper had attached to the kitchen long ago came to life and the Charmed heard Wyatt's soft cries of awakening.  
  
"Ok... I'll forget it if Paige takes me up there, I'm just too sleepy to walk upstairs." Piper yawned.  
  
Both sisters orbed next to Piper's bed half a second later just to find that Wyatt was not alone.  
  
"Chris! What are you doing here? " asked Paige in disbelief. What happened to that boy? Did he want to die?  
  
It was a miracle that Piper hadn't blown him up the moment they had entered the room. And speak of the devil...  
  
"Chris, can you please put Wyatt down in the cuddle?"  
  
Okay, that wasn't the outburst that Paige had feared. She turned to her sister who wasn't angry but scared. Scared to death by Chris holding her baby.  
  
"Chill, Piper. I'm not going to harm him."  
  
"Then put it back to his bed, please..."  
  
Chris looked around the room for a second and then faced the sisters again. "I can't, I'm really sorry Piper, but he's in danger..."  
  
"Then give him to me, I'll protect him." Piper pleaded.  
  
"I'm not so sure about it... "  
  
"What are you talking about Chris?" Paige left her sister side and advanced to the whitelighter. " C'mon, give me Wyatt."  
  
"I'm sorry Paige, I can't... " Chris took a step backwards, looking hastly to the door. " It's for the best, I swear it."  
  
"You won't leave with Wyatt, Chris." Piper gestured towards them and smashed the window. "Next time I'm going to hit you..."  
  
"And what of Wyatt?"  
  
"He can protect himself."-  
  
"Yes... but he isn't, is he? C'mon, he's trusting me, take a little confidence in him and trust me you too."  
  
"For lords sake Chris, you're kidnapping him... what kind of confidence do you expect us to show?"  
  
Chris shrugged and turned to Piper.  
  
"I'm really... " he started, but Piper was already waving her hands and if Wyatt hadn't lift the shield he would have been dead. "Hey, thanks for that, man..." Chris said to Wyatt.  
  
And, once again, the whitelighter orbed out of the manor.

* * *

* * *

I have to say that I'm very proud of how this is going... what do you think?

Oh... my Beta Reader asked me about what was Itaca (it's in the begining of the chapter). Itaca was an ancient island in the Roman and Greacian mythology. It's were lived Ulysses (who's grecian name was Odysseus) a roman king that went to the Trojan war. Whe Ulysses tryed to come back home from the war, the gods cursed his boat and the travel that should have lasted only 2 months more or less, lasted for 10 years full of adventures and dangers until he finally reached his home and came back to Penelope (his wife).  
Actually, the word 'Itaca' it's used as a metaphor to talk about something you want to achieve. Not the physical end of the travel, but an utopia... something that's worth fighting for. As I told As Always, sorry for the mythology class, but I love it U


	4. How to get things worse with just a spel...

UOOOH!!! I have so many reviews!!! You'e all so wonderful.. I will share the world with you once I've conquered it!!

Well, first the reviwers, now the disclaimers. I don0t own the Charmed show, if I'd have it's copyright I'd be writing episodes, not fanfictions... well, thinking of it, I 'd be writing both.

**Jessie:** Thanks, I'm glad to read it.  
**Magical Princess**: Thanks.  
**Drewfuller4eva: **Well... I don't know if they're gonna be as interesting as you say that this is, but there are still some twists left evil grin  
**Jennie:** your review is nearly as long as the chapter itself.. happy happy. All he improvement in the grammar is simply due to mt lovely beta .  
Yes, obviously, Chris is kidnapping Wyatt for a very good reason... that he is not telling, obviously because if he did so... well, something bad would happen and the fic would end pretty sooner than expected. Ans he's not telling them who he is... because I've always think that he never intended to do so. After all he is the all work a no fun guy, Piper and the rest knowing what had happened would distract him and could have 'future consequences', etc etc... I think that he'd think that it was pointless.  
On the other hand, they didn't hit him with the potion because it wasn't a potion but a power of three spell, and Phoebe wasn't there.  
Again, I thank you for your long reviews, I'm happy that you think that my fic is that good because I'm constantly worried for the lack of words and expresions (I always try to check that when writing in spanish). And I'll try and re- post the earlier chapters the moment I can.  
**teal-lover**: Thanks! You'll learn ehat happens, don't worry about that... just not now or it wouldn't be funny.  
**gabwr:** Thanks.  
**Shina: **Hahaha! Read and discover it by yourself... although worried sick is much more accurate.  
**Karen**: I'm glad it earned a capital LOVE!  
**Christine Marquez:** I'm sorry about that, but they're not going to discover it until the story feels ready, it would be pointless otherwise... please, have a little patience.  
**Lark**: Thanks!  
**Chrissister/Melinda:** Thanks , I'm doing my best with the eng... well, in fact I have a great beta working on it.

As always, I want to thank AS Always (silly joke, sorry) for the beta. You're my hero, my muse, my... okay, my lovely beta.

Oh, and I'm happy that you guys enjoyed the grecian/roman myth. It's just that I like the reference, but using it was pointless if no one knew what I was talking about U

Buff... what a preview... okay, no more words and on with the show.

* * *

"How's the scrying going?" Piper asked Paige for the 5th time in the last 60 seconds.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
Piper turned to Leo.  
  
"And the sensing?"  
  
The elder just shook his head, unable to answer.  
  
"Phoebe? Do you sense anything? Had any premonitions?"  
  
"At this very moment I just can sense Leo worrying to death. Calm a little man, I can't focus if I have to deal with both sets of feelings..."  
  
"Both?" Piper raised an eyebrow with curiosity.  
  
"Leo and mine's, I'm worried too, you know? He's my nephew."  
  
"Well, you don't seem all that worried..."  
  
Phoebe sighed and turned back to the premonitions, touching both Wyatts and Chris's clothes although none of them seemed to be very useful. Every now and then she would see something, Wyatt wearing this sweater, Chris leaning over the Book of Shadows with that shirt, but nothing useful enough to content Piper. Who was starting to get on her nerves.  
  
She took another mini jumper from the pile and gasped. A kid was wearing that jumper, a kid that wasn't Wyatt, a kid that... that what????? Phoebe threw the shirt across the attic in frustration.  
"Did you get something? " Luckily it was Leo that asked and not Piper.  
"No, sorry Leo... just some weird premonition about some kid that's going to wear that in some years."  
  
"Who knows, maybe another generation of Halliwells. " guessed Paige while changing the SF map for a world's one.  
  
"Sure... or perhaps it will simply go to charity."  
  
"Hey! Do we remember my son here people?" Piper asked, anger that they could even talk about anything ,but Wyatt at the moment.  
  
Paige went back to work while Phoebe tried to count until 100 very slowly, Piper was worried sick and had every right in the world to be obnoxious.  
  
_1,2,3,4,5,6,7,..._  
"Look, Piper, why don't you try to search in the Book of Shadows? " suggested Paige " Maybe there's some summoning spell there."  
  
"No, we tried it before, the book is not helping."  
  
"And what if we try to write a spell?" Now asked Phoebe, feeling once again Leo's distress and Piper's urgency.  
  
"Without the book? And what if we just summon Chris? What if we leave Wyatt alone in some dirty and horrible place? What if... what if... whatever... just keep on sensing, ok?"  
  
_31,32,33,34,35_... deep breath.  
  
"Ok, I got it, I got it. No summoning him, no looking in the book, no nothing... and what about you, Leo? Any idea."  
  
Leo opened one eye for a moment just to shake his head again. Phoebe felt sorry for him, the worry had aged him ten years at least, his face was crossed with lines of guilt and pain and Piper's hysterics weren't helping.  
  
For half an hour, the only sound in the room was Piper pacing around and asking angry questions, finally, even she sat down and waited in silence. Nothing happened until...  
  
"Bingo!"  
  
"I got him!"

Both, Leo and Paige, screamed at the same time and orbed out without a further explanation.  
  
"We should ban them from doing that without telling us where they are going." said Phoebe.  
  
Piper glared at her and she decided to shut up, mainly because she was actually sensing all the anxiety her sister was feeling at her. The anxiety, the worry, the rage, the expectation, the fear... Piper's emotional turmoil was giving her a huge headache.  
  
Chris being thrown across the room distracted her, though.  
  
Leo had orbed him into the manor and was giving to the half whitelighter a piece of his mind. Soon, Paige orbed into the attic too.  
  
"I'm sorry, he found him first. Wyatt was not there so he just took him here just to... ask a few questions."  
Chris was going to find it hard to answer any questions: First because he was crashing into any piece of furniture in the room, and second because Leo wasn't really asking.  
  
"Leo! Leo, stop that! " Piper faced the elder and forced him to stop." We need him able to tell us where's Wyatt. We need him conscious... "  
  
The witch turned to face Chris who was trying to get up, nursing his arm that was clearly broken.  
  
"Where is Wyatt, Chris? Tell us now and you'll be ale to leave the manor alive and in one piece..."  
  
Phoebe looked at the half whitelighter who's eyes were darting across the room. Looking at her, looking at Paige, looking at Piper and at last looking at Leo. Finally he looked at Piper again with a stern look in his eyes.

* * *

Piper shook her head, her anger was making her feel dizzy and a little light headed.  
  
And Chris wasn't helping.  
  
Somehow the rage she was feeling some seconds ago had dissipated... no, it was becoming concern. She didn't wanted to blow Chris up for taking Wyatt anymore. She just wanted to hug her son, to have Wyatt with her and forget about this horrible day.  
  
"Chris, tell me where's Wyatt, please... I don't want to hurt you, but I will."  
  
The young man shook his head again.  
  
Piper looked around, searching for some support. Phoebe was looking furiously at Chris, while Paige was averting her eyes. Leo was barely able to stop himself from starting the punching again. It was up to her. She wondered what Prue would do now, what would her smart sister do? What...  
  
"The spell! " cried Paige holding a paper in her hands.  
  
"What?"  
  
"The spell, we can cast the spell at him now and ask about Wyatt!"  
  
Piper sighed, somehow relieved. That was a good idea, that would give her son back, and then she'd deal with Chris in a more sensitive way... blowing him away to Jupiter, probably. But then again, if Wyatt was alright maybe he just would end up on the moon.  
"What spell? " the half whitelighter looked at them startled, and that was like the last signal for the sisters to decide. If your enemy shows fear at something... just play it hard on him.  
  
"Leo, care to hold him?" asked Phoebe grinning mischievously.  
  
"I thought you wouldn't ask..."  
  
Piper glared at her sister, was she out of her mind? But the elder was already pinning Chris to the wall, pressing his broken arm and forcing him to scream out in pain. Although that wasn't Piper's idea, the witch couldn't feel very sorry for him at that very moment, so she just hurried to read the spell and get over it.  
  
_Words and memories of the mind,  
pains and happiness from the past,  
traveler from another time,  
listen to spell we cast.  
  
Hear our spell and hear our plea,  
Let your soul appear to us,  
so the path we can foresee,  
let yourself release what was.  
_  
And with the last word ushered, Chris started to glow.  
  
Soon it was obvious that whatever was happening was sending the guy into hysterics, Leo had realized. He was still screaming, not in a painful way but in a full attack of panic.  
  
Slowly at the beginning and faster later, the glow started to fade away until it finally disappeared, leaving in the attic four really stunned adults and ...a extremely confused early teenager.  
  
"What the hell was that? " The kid looked at them for a while, waiting for an answer that wasn't coming, finally he just shrugged. "Ok, forget that, surely you'll explain it later. I've homework, and Mr. Ryan doesn't care about demons attacking nor crazy Gargoyles... and I just can't use the dog-eating-homework excuse any more... he's not buying it."  
  
The kid crossed the room and went through the door without even looking back at them twice. Just when he was already out did he turned and face Leo. "Oh! And hi to you too, it's nice to see you every now and then."  
  
No one spoke. No one looked at each other. The witches, along with Leo, were still looking speechless at the attic door when the kid returned holding Paige's old plushie and a bra.  
  
'Mmmm... oookay... so... who turned my bedroom into a hollow of horror with..." he showed both things to them. '"stuffed animals and lingerie?"  
  
Paige blushed, hastily grabbing her things.  
  
"Do you mind?"  
  
"Hey! Don't drop your things in my place, and I..."  
  
"That's not your place! Mr. Blinkie was in MY bedroom."  
  
"YOUR bedroom?" The boy turned to Piper with a frown. "What's happening here? What's she talking about? And when did you grow your hair long again?"  
  
"Chris?" Asked the witch. She was starting to feel sick once again, and her not-wanted-anymore whitelighter turned into a teen was not the solution for her problems.  
  
'No, It's Little red ridding hood here..." answered Chris exasperated. Piper looked as if she was going to say something further but then her face went green and she just left the room. Chris rolled his eyes, maybe finally after one too many potions, one too many orbing, one too many hitting the walls... his family had gone nuts. The boy wondered if that would get him out of Monday's exam.  
  
Leo motioned to go after Piper, but Phoebe stopped him.  
  
'Wait some minutes, she's very tired... the best we can do for her is just find him, ok?" The elder nodded, still looking to where his wife had left.  
  
Phoebe grabbed Chris and forced him to sit down in the chair "So let's start the interrogation."  
  
"Hey, get off me!" exclaimed the kid, getting up and away from her. Wonderful... he had no idea about what he had done that had made his aunt so mad at him... At least he hoped that it had been worth the 'interrogation' he was going to receive. Thinking of it... 'Interrogation' was a really scary word coming from someone that usually was on his side.  
  
"C'mon, calm down Pheebs'" Paige stepped between the two of them and looking at her sister a little stunned... not so long ago she was acting like the moderation queen and now she was looking at Chris as if ready to start the torture session "We'll find Wyatt. You said it, Chris is not going to harm him."  
  
"No... he's not, is he?'  
  
Not really wanting to ask about the last comment, Paige got back to the issue.  
  
"So let's guess that the spell backfired a little."

"Spell?" asked Chris.  
  
"What do you think, Leo?" For once, Paige just wanted Leo to act more as an elder and keep cool and less as a worried father. Somehow, Piper's leaving the attic seemed to have put some sense in his head, for he just nodded and turned to Chris.  
  
"Okay, let's keep it straight." said finally the elder. "Do you know who we are?"  
  
"Did you say spell?" repeated Chris, less than interested in whatever his father wanted to know.  
  
"Answer to me." Leo demanded.  
  
"Yes, I do know who you are, did I pass the test? Now, back to the spell thing..."  
  
"Later. Do you know who's Wyatt?"  
  
Chris half curious look changed into a grumpy one. "Blond? Blue eyes? Twice blessed? No, I've not the slightest idea."  
  
"Stop being clever, this is not funny. Now, where's Wyatt?"  
  
Chris face changed yet again from grumpy to angry. His father harassing him about Wyatt was one too many drops in an already full glass of water.  
"How am I supposed to know that? Go and sense him with you powers if you're so worried!!"  
  
"I'm starting to loose my patience here, boy..."  
  
"You are? I thought that whitelighters had a never ending bag of that... that it went with the job, if you know what I mean..."  
  
"Look, Chris, we really don't have time for this chat, okay?"  
  
"Wow, is this a real chat between us? It must be fool's day."  
  
"Yep, it looks like he does know who you are." Paige walked again in the middle of the discussion. "Now, see Chris. The thing is that Leo here is pretty worried about Wyatt because he is missing and we can't sense him. Now, we think that you may know where he is..."  
  
Chris looked at the wall, uneasy. He hated it when Wyatt put him in those awkward situations. To lie to his parents or to betray his brother... the answer was easy, though.  
  
"I don't know where Wyatt is."  
  
Paige closed her eyes with concern while Leo simply allowed himself to fall into the couch, covering his face with his hands. Chris felt sorry for them and wondered if Wyatt was going to be alright but, of course, the almighty twice blessed was never wrong. Maybe if he could keep their attention for a little while his brother would be able to come back and make up an excuse for whatever he was doing.  
  
"Now, again... about that spell... you know? I really can't believe you guys cast a spell on me. Which was it? And..." the boy stopped dead in the middle of the sentence and finally took a closer look at his surroundings.  
  
The attic was more or less the same, although there were some new... old stuff here and there. On the other hand, her aunts..."You know, Phoebe? I really love you hair, but I don't remember you saying that you were going to cut it..."  
  
"I didn't cut my hair today..."  
  
"That's my point exactly.'" He was getting nervous, there was something definitely wrong with his family. "Now, and for the last time... can you tell me what the hell is going on here? Please?"  
  
"Sorry, we can't, future consequences' answered Paige with a smirk. ' Oh, thank God, I've been waiting to say that for soooo long..."  
  
"Er...'" was Chris only answer.  
  
Piper came back at that moment, slightly pale.  
  
"Are you alright?" asked Leo, leaning to her.  
  
"Yes, better... I just got nauseas... I think that all this damn worry is getting to me." Piper rubbed her temples, an apparently normal kill-the-demon-day had been getting more and more complicated. How could a normal abnormal day get more abnormal? And what was happening to her stomach? "Any news from future boy here?"  
  
"Yeah... that he doesn't knows that he's a you-know-what boy." stated Paige pulling a face, probably trying to tell her something.  
  
"You-know-what what?" Piper's belly was too messed for her to be subtle enough to get hints.  
  
"You know... a that-thingie boy".  
  
"I'm pretty lost here, Paige, Honey".  
  
The younger Charmed sighed in exasperation and went to Phoebe for help.  
  
"She means that Chris doesn't know where he is" simply said the middle one, rolling her eyes.  
  
At the end, Piper nodded. So that was it, Chris didn't knew that he was in his p...  
  
"Am I in the past?" asked Chris with startled, wide open eyes. Oh... oh... oh oh oh oh holy crap!! That was just so wrong!  
  
Paige stared at him in disbelief.  
  
"I thought he didn't know it?" Piper walked over a couch and sat down, all the confusion plus the nauseas were giving her a huge headache.  
  
"We thought he didn't know it" answered the other two sisters, both at the same time.  
  
"She said it earlier..." Chris signaled his mother "you know... that about me being Future boy. I just figured that something was wrong because all of you seemed pretty young and changed and... well different.".  
  
"I will regret those words in the future, young man' was Paige comment, then something hit her. 'But you really do know us... so we'll meet in the future".  
  
Chris looked at her for a moment like if she was mad, but hastily forced another expression. One far more cool and controlled. In fact, the one Paige had seen him pulling every time the future issue came in the conversation.  
  
"So you don't know me, do you?" he asked in most casual voice he could manage.  
  
"Yeah! We do!" Answered Paige with a big fake of a smile. "You're Chris, and you know us... we know all about you, man... you just love so much to talk us about the future..."  
  
"Sure..." answered the kid rising an eyebrow, Paige lied far better in the future. "Look, you shouldn't be trying to learn anything about the future... time traveling is pretty dangerous, I could end up changing my future, erasing it so I wouldn't have a place where come back. All what could go wrong... oh god, I certainly shouldn't be here. I need to go back home... let's check the book, I'm sure that I saw a spell there..."  
  
Paige held him back and forced him to sit in the chair.  
  
"I was kind of wondering when were you going to say that..."  
  
"To say what?"  
  
"Nothing... whatever, you're not going anywhere until we find where is Wyatt".  
  
Chris kept quiet, he knew far too well when not to push it harder with Paige.  
"Well, at least I'd like to know which year...?"

"We are in the year 2004. Does that help?" answered Piper, her head was getting a little better and her stomach seemed more... in the 'digesting' mode.  
  
"2004..." Great... thought the future boy, no little Chris around to piss my powers... yet. "And what the hell am I doing in the year 2004?"  
  
"You came..." Paige was about to answer the whitelighter's question when Phoebe cut off the conversation.  
  
"Chris, baby Wyatt is missing, ok? And you took him away just some hours ago. Now, can you drag us to him now? You know, he's a toddler and you could have put him in danger". Although her voice was kind of quiet there were sharp edges in the whole sentence. As if she was trying to menace him in a very subtle way. That was disturbing, Aunt Phoebe usually preferred the direct threads.  
  
"Why would I take Wyatt away for?" he asked finally, trying to gain some time to figure what the hell was going on.  
  
Oh... his mom, his real older mom, was going to kill him so much the moment he managed to come back.

* * *

So what do you think?


	5. And everything is going weirder and weir...

**Okay! First, I'm so sorry for the delay in this update. There's a very reasonable explanation about that. You see, my sweet beta-whitelighter and i were handling the last details about the update when a really worried elder appeared out of nowhere and pleaded us to help him... it seems that a devious demon called Hotmailrrruuummm was trying to get rid of humanity. Sure you can understand our awkward position... there, trying not to look at the elder golden gown (out of fear of burst laughing), with lots of work to do and, indeed, being needed somewhere else. We couldn't but to obligue and start the hunt for the devious demon Hotmailrrrruuummm... it lasted for what seemed weeks, searching through the underworld like a mad dunadain, asking and bullying eery single demon... but at least we finished our assignment. Our first intention was to come back hastly and end the update, but the elders asked us to go upthere and made a celebrtion with champagne and sandwitches and music and lots of elder all in golden gowns. They looked like a gospel chorus... On our defense I must say that we just stayed there for a couple of hours and just leave. We had duty to do... so that's it... nevertheless, we're sorry, for we understand that saving the worl is no excuse for a delay, but we hope you'll forgive us.**

**On the other hand, I can't but love and adore all the reviews you've post. Reviews are like oxygen, reviews lift us up where we belong... all you need are reviwers... !!**

**Do I'm so sorry for not answering them here, but the advebture have left me exhausted and damn Windows have just shuted himself down for the fourth time while I was trying to write them down... I swear that I'll post it later**

* * *

_"Chris, baby Wyatt is missing, ok? And you took him away just some hours ago. Now, can you drag us to him now? You know, he's a toddler and you could have put him in danger". Although her voice was kind of quiet there were sharp edges in the whole sentence. As if she was trying to menace him in a very subtle way. That was disturbing, Aunt Phoebe usually preferred the direct threads.  
  
"Why would I take Wyatt away for?" he asked finally, trying to gain some time to figure what the hell was going on.  
  
Oh... his mom, his real older mom, was going to kill him so much the moment he managed to come back._

* * *

**And up with the story...**"Don't give us that crap, Chris!" Blurted out Phoebe. "Look, I really don't mind you being 12..."  
  
"13, I'm 13. And I'm going to be 14 in a few weeks!"  
  
"Whatever... What I mean is that I don't mind you looking like an obnoxious kid." Phoebe's face was only a few inches away from his. "From my point of view you're still the obnoxious excuse for an adult and I'm going to treat you exactly like that..."  
  
Chris was starting to be very afraid of her aunt. That, by itself, was a big signal that something was wrong. Then again, she didn't knew that he was her nephew... he was only the guy who had kidnapped Wyatt, and both her aunts were very protective of their nephews. Or were going to be... Or... whatever. Anyway, what was that nonsense about him being an obnoxious adult?  
  
"I'm not obnoxious" He complained and then, remembering something else, added." And I'm not an adult... yet."  
  
The Charmed Ones glanced at each other, would telling him the truth be a good idea?  
  
"Maybe if he knows, he will remember something else..." pointed out Leo. Chris being a young boy seemed to have cooled his homicide instincts for him, even if he was the kidnaper of his son. He was certainly not going to start bullying him, even if that seemed to be Phoebe's current tactics.  
  
"If I know what, exactly?" asked Chris.  
  
"That you are actually an adult now." was Piper's answer. "You're a grown up adult that came from the future to save Wyatt, or so you say". The witch ignored the part about Wyatt being evil, maybe they could learn something of this Chris after all, if they played their cards right.  
  
"I'm a grown up?" Chris walked over a window and looked at his reflection. "I don't look like a grown up. And I don't have beard... are you sure?"  
  
"Yes, we're sure. You just have kind of... erm... changed back to your early teens due to the spell we casted to find Wyatt" explained Paige.  
  
"Why would a spell you casted to find Wyatt affect me like that? What did you tried to rhyme?"  
  
"We... er... kind of casted it on you." responded Paige with a sorry smile.  
  
"W- WHAT????" asked the kid, shocked.  
  
"Hey! You kidnapped him first!" exclaimed the not so blonde witch.  
  
"I did what?!"  
  
"You took him away... without telling us anything. Then you came back... well, we brought you back, and casted a truth spell on you..." Paige tried to explain.  
  
"A truth spell? What are you, retarded?!"  
  
"I beg your pardon?" Piper snapped back, furious. Shamefully, none of them noticed Chris going pale in a 'me and my big mouth' way.  
  
"Sorry... I meant... I meant that casting a true spell is not a good thing. It always backfires, you could even have fried my brain." And Chris was quoting directly his mother there.  
  
"Oh god... I'm devastated by that..." answered she sarcastically.  
  
Chris breathed deep and closed his eyes, trying to remind himself that she wasn't his Piper, his mother.  
  
"Hey, are you alright?" He opened his eyes to find that Leo had half kneeled in front of him and was watching him with concern and a sympathetic look.  
  
"Look," said the elder. "I know that this is weird, and that you must be concerned. I want to find Wyatt, I really do. And I think that you can help me, us. Anyway this must be very confusing, so maybe you should take a moment to relax and try to understand all the information. And we don't wanna push, but we love Wyatt, and he is in danger not only by being away but because he's... special."  
  
Chris backed away. He usually avoided any kind of proximity with his father, and more than ever when he was in the speech mode. _Bla, bla, help me find the twice charmed and oh so special Wyatt, bla, bla, bla, I'm trying to be nice with you so you will help me, bla, bla, bla, oh, I love so much to hear my own voice, bla, bla, bla... bla._ He just hoped that boringness wasn't something genetic.  
  
On the other hand, and focusing what was actually happening... all that stuff about future present past of himself... that was weird; however, not the weirdest thing he'd ever seen. It wasn't worse than when Elvis ghost possessed Wyatt, and his brother spent a whole weekend singing and 'twist and shouting' through the manor.  
  
Very confusing? Moment to relax? Chris snorted, there was no time for confusion living with the charmed ones. So the kid just made a smug smile and got over it.  
  
"How old am I?" he asked, openly giving his back at the elder and facing Paige.  
  
"We don't know... in your early twenties." she answered.  
  
Early twenties? That was...  
  
"Cool. Am I gorgeous?"  
  
The youngest Charmed just rolled her eyes with a very tiny smirk; this Chris sure was different than the one they knew.  
  
"Forget that, of course am I..." The kid dismissed the question and returned to his main concern. "And you say that you casted a spell on me... because I had took Wyatt away?"  
  
Paige nervously lifted her weight from one foot to another.  
  
"More or less...You weren't telling us why you'd done it, and you wouldn't take him back." Telling us anything at all, in fact... she thought. After all, the spell had been written to force Chris to tell them the truth about the future. But there was no reason to tell him that was there? He would get quite angry at what she'd already said, not that he had any right to be angry with them. But Chris reaction was not an angry one, instead he just laughed.  
  
"I see" was Chris's simple answer. He wasn't angry, how could he? He had kidnapped their baby, the Charmed Ones were only doing what was necessary to get him back. And now that they were explaining him what was happening, he was far less worried. After all, didn't Wyatt always say that, with enough information, Chris would work a way out of any situation? And that with enough time he'd get all the information? Okay, maybe Wyatt usually added that after all the plan had been settled and ready to go Chris would become, in fact, the King of the Last Minute Improvisation, due to one of those little and annoying surprises their lives seemed to be filled with. Little surprises like this one.  
  
"So you're just saying that I haven't travelled in time, but my twenty and something self has " the kid resumed " or will for that matter. And then he, that's me, just changed into his early teens, that would be me now, who, by the way, just doesn't remember a shit about all that 'saving Wyatt by kidnapping him' thing. Correct? "  
  
The adults were silent for a moment, trying find the sense in the kid's words.  
  
"That's it, 'Chris Perry's Easy Guide for Time Travelling' is equally dense when he is thirteen." gave up finally Paige. "Let's say that's a yes, you're right."  
  
"Chris Perry?" asked Chris, confused again.  
  
Paige half smiled mischievously.  
  
"So that's your name, am I wrong?"  
  
Chris blushed, caught in the lie.  
  
"Well, Perry is... it is my grandmother maiden name. "He lied hastily. Too hastily for the matter, he'd better change the subject "Have you tried to scry for Wyatt?"  
  
"Of course we've tried" was Phoebe angry answer who earned, again, a curious glance from Paige.  
  
"Call him?"  
  
"Done".  
  
"Sense him?"  
  
"Checked."  
  
"Summon him?"  
  
"No way, the book isn't helping us, we're running out of options here."  
  
Chris thought about some solutions. "Writing your own spell?"  
  
"No, without the Book of Shadows its not possible" Phoebe shrugged hopelessly.  
  
"Says who?" asked the kid, stunned. "You certainly don't need the book to look for Wyatt... he's Piper's son after all. A power of three spell should unblock anything I've done to screw the sensing."  
  
"And how a young and healthy boy would know that much bout the power of three?" asked Paige, trying to get some answers.  
  
"Being a half witch with no extra school curriculum leaves you time to learn." Chris half smiled, his lack of initiative in sports or any kind of extra work after classes that wasn't hanging out with his friends or stalking their new and hot like hell neighbor were a common theme of discussion back at home.  
  
"Anyway, it should lead you to Wyatt..." Which, Chris thought a little too late, may not be such a good idea. After all his older one had tried to prevent them finding Wyatt. On the other hand his older one wouldn't want Wyatt to be alone wherever he'd left him, would he? Or maybe that's exactly what he'd wanted... He cursed mentally, he hated being in the dark... how could he take the right decision if he didn't knew what was happening?  
  
"Exactly, why didn't we thought of this before?" wondered Piper, watching Phoebe writing down a quick spell.  
  
"We did," said Paige. "In fact it was you who said what a horrible idea it was, don't you remember?"  
  
Piper frowned; she remembered it... in a very weird dream like way.  
  
"I don't know, maybe..." answered the witch after a while. The nerves were getting her stomach in a knot again. "I only want to find Wyatt... I don't know why Chris took him, and I'm not even angry at him... no that much. I should go down to the underworld and start blowing demons until I find my son..."  
  
"We talked about that, remember?" Paige massaged her sister's back. "That would be like publishing an advertisement in big neon lights in the middle of hell, like organizing a hunt the 'twice blessed' picnic day. And we don't even now if he's there, separate now would be a horrible idea..."  
  
"I know why I'm not doing it Paige, but that hardly helps." snapped Piper.  
  
"Yeah, sorry honey."  
  
"No... I'm sorry... You're worried too..."  
  
"We all are." Paige looked across the room at Leo and remembered that stuff Phoebe had published some weeks ago. That thing about how going through a hard situation together would bond a couple. "You know... Leo is trying to play brave there, but Phoebe just told me before how much worried Leo was, how near of a break down she could sense him."  
  
Piper turned to the elder. Leo had left a little after they had decided to try and write the spell, he had gone to see Gideon, to ask for help. He hadn't said a thing since he had come back, he had just shook his head and sat in the chair. He had always been her anchor, the one thing that stayed safe and right when everything went wrong. Watching him so lost, made her feel guilty and sick. They should be trying to work this out together. No matter how ended Leo thought that their marriage was. No matter how wrong things had gone between them two... they were Wyatt's parents, they had faced evil and worse and they had survived because they had always worked better when they were together. Things wouldn't fall apart when there was the both of them to fight it. Whatever happened later, they would not find their son unless they worked on it united. Piper got up, sick of her own stupidity around Leo, of her childish behaviour for Leo leaving last Saturday. Leo needed her, and she needed him... more important, Wyatt needed the both of them. But her stomach had a very different opinion in it, because before she could make a step towards him, the witch felt suddenly sick in a far less spiritual way and ran out of the attic again.  
  
"That was not the plan." whispered Paige, watching her oldest sister leaving the room. So let's make a new one, she thought to herself, getting up and approaching Leo.  
  
"I think that now would be a good time to go and see how is she feeling..." she said with a smile.  
"Even if you're not married anymore, she needs you, you know?"  
  
The elder raised his head to look at her, sadly smiled back and orbed away. Hopefully he was going to talk with Piper... but again, being these two idiots, who could know?  
  
"I think that I've got it" said Phoebe, holding a piece of paper.  
  
She read it.  
She read it again.  
She checked the back of the paper, looking for some other writing.  
  
"You must be kidding me, Phoebes..."  
  
"What?"  
  
Paige showed her the paper.  
  
"This spell is awful. If Piper sees this she will go nuts!"  
  
"C'mon, is not that bad!"  
  
"Some of this words doesn't even exists..." the youngest charmed threw her arms to the air in exasperation. " you can't just make up words so a spell will rhyme!"  
  
"I' didn't made up words." complained Phoebe.  
  
"...and do it schlock" read Paige "Schlock? Can you tell me again what does Schlock means?"  
  
"Hey! If you're so perfect, just do it by yourself." Phoebe answered childishly.  
  
"Of course I will redo it... Wyatt would do it better..." The half whitelighter threw the spell in the basket without a further look at it. "But from now you've lost your place as the best spell writer in the family. No more VIP entries to the toilet for you."  
  
Phoebe's only answer at that was a long stare that ended with a mischievous smile.  
  
"You're right... I'm the best of us with this stuff, aren't I?"  
  
"Not anymore."  
  
"I should be doing it, shouldn't I? I'm the writer with 'Ask Phoebe' and all that." The columnist smile widened in a cat-chasing-mouse way.  
  
"Now you're scaring me, honey" Paige started to back away.  
  
Chris had been quietly watching in a corner while her aunt tried to play cupid with his mother and Leo. He left the place and knelt down next to the basket, picking up the paper. He had heard Paige saying that Wyatt would have done it better... well, she had never seen Wyatt trying to write a spell. Every inch that Wyatt had of twice blessed and power, he lacked it in rhyme or tempo capacities. His spells sounded like a Teletubby speech, and had even less sense.  
  
He read the spell.  
He read the spell again.  
He checked the back of the paper, looking for some other writing.  
  
That was awkward even in Wyatt's standards. Even his brother and his "Now rhymes with so" theory would beat that. And what kind of word was Schlock?  
  
"What are you doing?" snapped his youngest aunt behind him.  
  
"I was reading Phoebe's spell" he confessed with a smirk. "It's pretty awful, isn't it?"  
  
"What are you talking about? It was awesome. " And with that last word, she left the attic following Piper's steps.  
  
"I knew it... too much hair dye is not good for her..." muttered the kid, turning towards Phoebe and trying to guess her actual mood. She looked back at him.  
  
"How good are you at spells?" asked the empath.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're a witch too, aren't you?"  
  
"Yes... yeah... er... I hope you already knew that..."  
  
"Well, then just help me with this, would you?" pleaded his aunt "My head is spinning and I can't put two words together here..."  
  
"You want me to... help you? Wasn't I an obnoxious kid?"  
  
"Well, you gave us this idea of the spell, didn't you? C'mon, I kind of even trust your older version."  
  
Chris simply nodded, wondering why nobody had told him that his family were on drugs before he was born. That would surely explain some of actual Wyatt's psycho behaviours.  
  
Meanwhile, on the first floor, Leo was standing in front of the bathroom door, knocking and trying to get his ex-wife to open the door. But the damn stubborn woman was ignoring him.  
  
"C'mon, Piper, open this door. Piper? Ok look, I'm worried about Wyatt too, but we'll find him. You don't have to hide your grief, I know how anxious you are." the elder knocked again. "Please Piper open the door, I want to see you, ok? I need to see you! I'm sorry for what happened last Saturday, I..."  
  
The toilet door opened and Piper's head appeared behind it.  
  
"You?"  
  
"I mean... last Saturday... When I woke up and you weren't there..."  
  
"You woke up and I...?" started to say the witch before she threw up; which, from Leo's point of view, was a good metaphor of what she was going to tell him, but a disgusting one nevertheless. Piper darted back to the bathroom leaving a much more depressed elder with much less clean clothes.  
  
"That was disgusting" said Paige walking behind him and going to the kitchen. "Come with me, there must be something useful in the Old-boyfriends box and you can clean a little downstairs. Then you can come back and try to heal her from whatever virus she's caught".  
  
"Changing would be good..." he said following his former sister-in-law. "But I don't think she'd want me to heal her..."  
  
"You're right, she's very mad at you." were Paige's not so reassuring words. "And not that you can complain on it... I mean, after what's happened to Wyatt. Even Phoebe is mad at you." Leo never saw Paige smiling at the guilty look in his face.  
  
"I should have never left them. I should have fought becoming an elder." Leo picked up some random trousers and a sweater from the box and started changing into it.  
  
"C'mon, don't be so mad at yourself... that was what you'd always wanted, even before you knew her... you were just blind..."  
  
"But they are more important than that!! And I wasn't blind at all, I knew that Chris was hiding something, I felt it. I just... just..."  
  
"You didn't want to see it? To lose your opportunity?"  
  
"No! I..."  
  
"We've got the spell." Chris's outburst from the top of the stairs gave a sharp end to the conversation. Paige ran upstairs, followed by Leo who met a very pale Piper in the first floor. The elder hastily continued to the attic, avoiding her eyes; loosing her half reassuring smile.  
  
"You've got it, sure? And what's this chalk mark in the floor?" Paige asked when both, Leo and Piper arrived.  
  
"Yep" Phoebe handed the piece of paper over with a smile. "Here it is, wrote and ready for us to find Wyatt. And the 'chalk mark' is an invocation symbol from the ancient Celtics." Paige's relief at her words rushed over the middle sister like cold water. What the hell was happening with them all today?  
  
"Okay!" Piper busted between them and took the paper. "Find Wyatt now, gloat over your genius later..."  
  
"Come here." Phoebe dragged her sisters to the middle of the circle, placed a map in the floor and holded the crystal over it. "Now... let's try."  
  
_There's a hidden we must find,  
but a power holds his trace,  
Let's our force release our kind,  
bring Wyatt back to this place._  
  
For some minutes everyone waited expectantly for something to happen. For the crystal to find him, for Leo or Paige to sense something... But the time past and soon it was obvious that there was no trace of Wyatt. 

Phoebe turned to Piper full of concern, her sister was breathing deep, trying to keep calm while Leo was looking around, as if waiting something to happen. He found something, for the elder had stopped dead and was looking with wide eyes to the corner of the attic. Phoebe looked at the place where the kid was before the spell and found... someone who was in his lately teens and was staring at them with a stunned face."What the...? Chris? " asked Paige. " I think he's changed again." She whispered to the sisters.  
  
"Hail, King of The Obvious" groaned Piper also in a low tone, worried for the half whitelighter who was giving a blank stare at them.  
  
"Chris, I think you know us," said Leo in a high slow voice that would have been funny being another the circumstance." but..."  
  
Chris moved at last, turning to Leo, and smiled as if hearing a very good joke. But the moment the elder moved towards the young man the smile fade again into a grimace that bordered dangerously with madness. Before anyone could do anything to stop him, Chris waved furiously his arm sending Leo violently to the wall.  
  
"Leo!!" screamed Piper.  
  
"Crap!" cursed Paige.  
  
"Chris!!" exclaimed Phoebe.  
  
"Ouch!!" complained the elder.  
  
"You must be kidding me." said Chris in a high-pitched voice, forcing them all, even Leo who was trying to stand up, to look at him, wondering what was he talking about. But the boy was just looking over their heads, as seeing something through a misty glass. "You must be kidding me!!!" He repeated, yelling now.  
  
"Chris..." tried Paige. "Look Chris, let me explain..."  
  
"Shut up, you bitch!!!!" Chris flicked his arm again, sending the witch to the wall. "How dare you? HOW DARE YOU???"  
  
Piper looked at Phoebe briefly and her sister nodded in agreement.  
"Chris! Look here, I've to tell you something"  
  
The young man just turned to her, his grimace became the essence of hatred as he just laughed bitterly.  
  
"This must be so funny, isn't it?" he said, approaching the witch.  
  
"What's so funny?" asked the older sister walking slowly to the right, forcing Chris to move with her.  
  
"You, you're funny. And he's even funnier... although pathetic would be a closer word."  
  
"He's pathetic? Who is he?"  
  
Chris's eyebrow raised and he just waved again his hands, sending Phoebe ,who had been trying to make a surprise attack, in to the wall, also colliding with Paige.  
  
"Do you really think that I would fell for that? Your boss should know me better than that..." the half whitelighter motioned for the whole room "better than this, in fact..."  
  
"Our boss?"  
  
"Drop that, you damned demon... I don't know what made him think that I was gonna fell for that, but this is lame. Do you hear me?" yelled Chris to the ceiling. "Are you listening you sick bastard!? You son of a bitch!? I'm not falling, so stop this!! STOP THIS NOW!!" and with the last exclamation he just motioned again to Piper and the witch levitated a few feets and flew across the room, crashing in an old armchair. Before she even touched the floor, Chris threw her again through the air, to the wall.  
  
"Chris, stop, you're going to kill her!!" exclaimed Phoebe, trying to get the teenager's attention and gaining it.  
  
"Oh... you can bet I'm going to kill her..." and again to the ceiling. "Do you hear me? I'm going to kill 'em all! And then I'm gonna go after you and snap your twice damned neck! So make them disappear!"  
  
"Who the hell is he talking to?" asked Paige before orbing an old flower pot at the young man head's who fell to his knees but kept consciousness and counteracted the attack by throwing what remained of the armchair at her. One of the wood pieces stabbed her in the stomach.  
  
"One down!" cheered Chris lightly.  
  
"Paige!!" screamed Leo, throwing a lightning through the room, hitting Chris and sending him to the floor, out cold. Once the boy was down, the elder ran to his sister-in-law and placed a hand above the wound, healing her. "Are you alright?"  
  
She nodded.  
  
"I didn't knew he had it on him..."  
  
"The homicidal instincts?" Piper half walked half stumbled towards them. "I said that I didn't like him, remember?"  
  
"And you know what?" asked Phoebe, approaching cautiously to the nearly unconscious Chris. "I bet he doesn't remember yet where's Wyatt..."  
  
"And he's pretty dangerous, don't you think? Maybe we should put some crystals around him..." suggested Paige. "Just to be sure that he wont start playing tk with us again."  
  
"However, the spell you cast is still affecting him..." pointed out Leo. "This is an older version of the Chris we just met..."  
  
"And he doesn't likes us..." said Phoebe "And maybe is the wall-hit head talking here, but I like his younger version better, even the older one was far more sociable. At least none of them tried kill us..."  
  
"Not that we know." added Paige earning a general nod of agreement. "And who the hell was he talking with?"  
  
Piper shrugged, complaining when her arm gave her a twitch of pain.  
  
"Let me." offered Leo, holding her briefly. After the known sparks and glows she was healed.  
  
"Thanks".  
  
"You welcome".  
  
In the floor, Chris laughed humourless, regaining his consciousness.  
  
"This is touching... really, I'm going to start to cry any time soon." he said softly "And now you should kiss her... I bet that that's in the play too."  
  
Slowly, he opened his eyes and glared at them with even more hate than before. The emotion was so powerful that Phoebe felt it like an actual wave of force that made her stumble. She would have fell if Piper hadn't caught her.  
  
"He hates." she said, answering her sister silent question.  
  
"You mean that he hates us..." pointed Paige out.  
  
"Yes... no, I mean that he hates. Us, the attic, the sky, himself... life..." she backed away hastily. "I feel so much hate in him that it's even hard to breath."  
  
The sisters shared a frown, after their neurotic worried one and the neurotic cheerful... now the neurotic psycho... how many Chris had been in his whitelighter's live? ((( I don't get it)))  
  
"We should decide what do we do now..." Leo got her attention back to Chris whowas still laughing and was trying to stand on one elbow, getting forces out of pure stubbornness.  
  
"I'll get the rocks." volunteered Paige. But before she could move, Chris regained his forces and waved at them again. As he had been half expecting this new attack, Leo stood hastily, trying to block the young man attack with his elder powers should be easy. Unfortunately, the tk wave was not directed at them but at the carpet under their feet that slid away, throwing them to the floor.  
  
"So much for some common shape shifters?" said the half whitelighter with a smirk, tking the old potions armchair to his enemies in the floor. "So sorry, but the Charmed Ones wouldn't of fell for that."  
  
And with those last words the young man signalled to the lying Piper and closed his hand into a furious fist.  
  
In the floor, covered in dust, wood and potions ingredients, the witch awoke to discover that she couldn't breath. Hopelessly she turned to her sisters and Leo, still unconscious, and then to the crazy Chris who's closed fist was pointing at her.  
  
"Be happy, for you're going to die faster than what you deserve." he was saying. "And then I'm going to kill'em all... also quickly, of course... and with god help or without it I will find Wyatt and I'm going to kill him." Chris attention went again to the ceiling. "Do you hear me, Wyatt? Do you? Once I've killed I'm going to find you and I'm going to kill your sorry ass!!!"  
  
Wyatt? The loss of oxygen was making Piper think slow and painfully, but even with that she heard Chris menace to his son. With her mind unable to fully distinguish between reality and delirium, she looked at the half whitelighter with a plea. Whatever he understood in it just made him laugh even harder.  
  
"What happened, you bitch? Are you feeling some kind of moral obligation for him now?"  
  
As the reality started to fade away from her, Piper tried desperately to fight Chris hold, to break free of it. But that just made his smile grew wider and crazier.  
  
"I will get him... do you hear me?" unable still to get up, the whitelighter crawled to her. "No matter what I have to do, no matter where I have to go or who I have to face... I will get him and then he'll pay in a very slowly and painful way."  
  
Suddenly Piper snapped her head up, looking at him in the eye. He was saying he truth, it wasn't just the wish to kill but the wish to harm and destroy. To harm Wyatt. Her son. With the last force she could manage, the witch gestured to Chris blowing him away and into unconsciousness. Freeing herself from his grip before everything went black and she died.

**

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**I really hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

**Thanks again to As always, and sorry again for th delay.**


	6. They shouldn't keep casting spells

Hi!!!!

Here comes the update, so please whoeve jinxed my mirror can put the hex back.

Pretty please UUUU

I'm sorry, I know that that was an evil Cliffhanger. I swear that I don't make the cliffhangers just for make people come back but because I like the effect.

And again, thanks to all the reviwerds... i can0t believe I'm having all those reviews. You make me soooo happy!!

**Drewfuller4eva: **Yeps! Those are the words And here's the update.

**may-j:** Yes. Because I'm evil. Probably and hehehe you'll have to keep reading to know that

**Jennie: **Thanks!! All the grammar going better is thanks to my beta (the AN mistakes, on the other hand were all mine. In my behalf I must say that that it was just something I wrote pretty quick). I''m glad you're liking the plot!!!, and I don't know why they didn't try the truth spell on Chris... probably for the same reason that Wyatt didn't wrote down the time travel spell (or is phisically unable to remember it).

**As Always:** Thaaaanks!!!! () In fact the first time I posted it, I posted it with aaaal your comments. So I had to erase and repost the chapter XP

**melissa-p:** Jejeje, I had lots of fun writing it down! I also prefer the neurotic one to the psico… and probably the sisters too.

**AK8:** Thanks

**Shina:** You know… a psico Chris on the loos would have been another wonderful way for the plot to continue… and maybe t will happen… who knows…

**terra fea: **jejeje... what can I say? I like characters going nuts, is good for the drama.

**Christine Marquez: **Jejeje again. I don''t really like to kill characters, so please, keep readin, There's a why for everything that's happening.

**zoned-out: **Er…yep he had a hoooorrible life. And I swear I would not put th world in the middle of n update again. (and about the other message... yep, he died but not in that way (read below)... and I'm actually a missy).

**Kilikapele :** Sorry for the cliffie, it just fekt right to end it there. I try to keep a good schedule in updates.

**allaboutelephants22: **Don't worry, I love ramblings. And yes use shapeshifter to impersonate the sharmed ones would be low... but future Wyatt is bad, isn't he?

**Rhia:** Thanks, but I already found a beta -. And i'm trying to arrange the dialogue who's talking??? Thing.

**Magical Princess:** Thanks!

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_In the last chapter…_

_"I will get him... do you hear me?" unable still to get up, the whitelighter crawled to her. "No matter what I have to do, no matter where I have to go or who I have to face... I will get him and then he'll pay in a very slowly and painful way."  
  
Suddenly Piper snapped her head up, looking at him in the eye. He was saying he truth, it wasn't just the wish to kill but the wish to harm and destroy. To harm Wyatt. Her son. With the last force she could manage, the witch gestured to Chris blowing him away and into unconsciousness. Freeing herself from his grip before everything went black and she died.___

And now...

* * *

In the floor, next to the dying charmed, Chris vanished silently, leaving one single conscious person in the attic. She finally managed to get up, her face was dirty with blood, although she didn't noticed and simply walked hastily towards Piper, checking her sister's neck for a non-existent pulse. While a part of herself panicked, kneeling down and starting a desperate CPR; a deeper one, a part that was watching and plotting somewhere near her conscious mind, kept it cool. The witch should not die, she was necessary.  
  
Suddenly realising the stupidity of her own actions, Paige quit the reanimation of her sister and went to Leo, shaking him wildly until he opened the eyes.  
  
"Paige? W...? Where's Chris? What happened? " The elder blinked, trying to focus and took another look at her." Oh, damn! you're bleeding!! " He screamed leaning over her, but the witch shook him off.  
  
"Don't worry for that, Piper's heart stopped!!"  
  
Leo went wax white and rushed past Paige and next to Piper. Soon there were glows and blue lights that lasted forever until finally the elder backed away and Piper awoke, gasping for air. Before she could even take a second breath Leo was embracing her tightly. The hug, however, lasted little for the elder backed away again.  
  
"Sorry, I just... you weren't, and I... I thought... " but he didn't ended the sentence for right to that moment Chris reappeared in the attic, still unconscious. The elder got up, missing again Piper's gesture towards him.  
  
"That was... can you help me finding the correct word? " asked Phoebe who had just been awaken by Paige.  
  
But no one answered her. Piper was deep inside her own thoughts, which were still hers thanks to the potions Chris gave them; Leo's was in the far away Old Love's realm; And Paige's attention was fully focused on Chris, the sense of hatred and curiosity that emanated from her were pretty palpable. Which was, indeed, weird, wasn't it? After all, she wasn't sensing anything from Piper... on the other hand she had sensed something from her older sister that same morning, so maybe the effect was just wearing off. Yeah... that must be it... sure... except that, deep down of her, somewhere, there was this stubborn little Phoebe getting suspicious. Chris stirring again, however, shut little suspicious Phoebe up and forced her to move. Before the young man could awake, she displaced the white rocks in it's place.  
  
"Where did he come from?" asked Paige, approaching Chris. "I mean, that wasn't an orbing thingy..."  
  
"Nope... it was no whitelighter type thingy..." pointed Leo.  
  
"Maybe he just made himself disappear... and then lost consciousness and reappeared again..." suggested Phoebe.  
  
"No , that would be an elder thingy" answered Leo.  
  
Paige shrugged "Well, maybe he is an elder after all..."  
  
"He is not an elder!!" Leo turned to her, outraged.  
  
"We can't be sure" said the younger charmed. "We didn't know that he was a witch, did we?"  
  
"But that's not the same" responded Leo.  
  
"You don't have to be this edgy about Chris joining your 'oh so cool' elite group." said Phoebe, smirking.  
  
"I'm not edgy! It's just that he is not a part of my elite... " The elder frowned. " We're not an elite group!!! Anyway, he can't be because I'd sense that..."  
  
"Just like you sensed him being half witch?" asked Paige, matter-of-factly.  
  
Leo glared at the sisters and turned to Chris without answering.  
  
Phoebe raised an eyebrow. "He is edgy." Stated the witch turning to her older sister that had been silent the whole time. "Are you okay, honey? This one was close."  
  
Piper looked at her. "And the difference with the other ones would be..."  
  
"Yeah, you got a point there. But then what's worrying you?"  
  
The older Halliwell faced her sister with a frown.  
  
"I thought you couldn't sense us anymore"  
  
"And I don't... well... I think that I can't."  
  
"You think?"  
  
"Well, the potions seems to be wearing off, but I didn't sensed anything in you... just kind of... knew it in a sister way..."  
  
"Sister way?"  
  
"You're frowning so much that your eyebrows look like a single V in the middle of your face."  
  
"Oh... sister way." Piper half smiled and finally relented. "Well, apart from the fact that my toddler son has been missing for the last twelve hours and we have his kidnapper with us, so he's probably alone..."  
  
Phoebe nodded. "Yeah... apart from that...".  
  
"I was just wondering about Chris... You know, although I was worried sick for taking my son away, a part of me kept telling me that he was not going to harm Wyatt."  
  
"And you're not sure anymore?"  
  
"No, I'm not... you didn't see him before, Phoebe... when he was killing me he just said that he was going to kill Wyatt too. And he meant it, I could just feel how much he hated him even without any kind of empath powers. As you said... the hatred was written all over him."  
  
Phoebe sat down, next to her, knowing what she wanted to say but wondering if doing so would be a good idea.  
  
"You know..." she started, then stopped, bit her lips and started again. "You know, what he says about Wyatt turning evil... I know that's horrible, but when he says it...when you look at him saying it... it, it feels true. " She averted he eyes form her sister " It feels strong and powerful. When Chris says it, it's not a lie or a comment... it's not something he's blurting off... it's an statement, something on which he had to build a life, his life... Something stronger than fate. I don't know, maybe I'm talking rubbish, it's just that I saw the fire in his eyes when he told us about Wyatt, and I've seen the same fire every time he talks about the future, even if it's just telling us that he can't say nothing about it."  
  
"You're trying to say that you believe that my son is going to be an evil bastard?" Resumed Wyatt's mother, getting to the point.  
  
"I think that he believes so." answered Phoebe.  
  
Piper nodded. "Yeah... me too. And it's silly, because I just wanted to cast the truth spell to hear him say that it was a lie. I knew I actually believed him, and I just wanted to prove me wrong. I wanted it to be a lie, a scheme... false."  
  
"I think that we all started this spell madness for the same reasons, honey... no matter what we actually thought about it, no one wanted to believe Chris's story."  
  
"But it's true and now I'm just so afraid... if Chris, this Chris, is this mad at him..."  
  
"I know, I know..." Phoebe nodded, hugging her again. "But you don't have to worry about that. He's here now and trapped, and we will find my nephew and he won't led a finger on him... I swear."  
  
Piper shook her head, slowly backing away from her sisters consoling arms.  
  
"No, you don't understand" she said, looking at her eyes again. "You've met the earlier Chris, the younger one. He was quite a normal kid..." she stated, and with an afterthought added " ...for Chris neurotic standards, I mean."  
  
Phoebe nodded.  
  
"But this Chris was plain crazy with hate..." Piper continued "And I'm not talking about our Chris neurosis, but about a full psychotic mental disease's worth of getting closed in a quilted cell with no access to any kind of sharpened pencil." The witch got up, helping her sister to do so. "What worries me is what kind of bastard can make that. What worries me is how evil Wyatt is going to be".  
  
Piper shot up for she was trembling now, suppressing tears. Phoebe, out of words, gave her a sympathetic look and embraced her, even if Piper fought weakly to stop her doing so.  
  
"That won't happen, he's not going to turn evil. We'll save him."  
  
"I wish I could be so sure... but the truth is that we can't even protect him in his own bedroom."  
  
_So much for the almighty columnist_... though the middle charmed at loss of words.  
  
"Sorry to interrupt" Paige appeared out of no where. "But I think that we should awake Sleeping Beauty here and start with the interrogation thingy."  
  
Both sisters crossed sights and nodded, whatever happened to Wyatt in Chris's time, they'd have to find him first and face that later.  
  
"I don't think that will work." Leo pointed ou.t "I doubt he even knows where Wyatt is. From his point of view, Wyatt is and adult, and I don't think he'd exactly kidnap him given the chance."  
  
"There's lots of sense in that." agreed Phoebe.  
  
"That and the fact that he'll be too busy trying to get to our throats to even listen the questions" added the elder.  
  
"So what do you suggest?" asked Piper finally.  
  
"We could... I mean... you could reverse the spell you casted on Chris and try a new approach." He said, looking at the wall, unable to turn to Piper. He hated so much every time he had to heal her because that meant that he hadn't been able to protect her.  
  
"You mean a new approach like nailing his head in the floor?" asked Phoebe, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"I mean like questioning him what's all this about".  
  
"Yeah... questions... that's good. And will he be just there listening, or are you going to hit him into every wall and furniture in the attic meanwhile?"  
  
Leo surrendered, Phoebe was right.  
  
"Okay, I'm sorry, I was distressed and angry. This time I won't hurt him before starting with the questions..." and at Phoebe distrustful look he added " Nor shall I hurt him after, that is if he have a good behaviour and answers them. Happy now?"  
  
Phoebe nodded and turned to Paige who's animosity was all over the place too. "Are we all ok with that Paige?"  
  
"Yes we are Phoebe. Only threatening, no punching." Answered the witch with a scorn. But she wasn't. She was really pissed at Chris, and deep down in her there was something that was pissed at him too. Something that was really pissed and starting to realize that if Chris was the only one who knew where the damn kid was, she could kill two birds with a simple shot. But this had to be subtle, no one should knew what she was doing.  
  
Piper snapped her fingers in Paige face, getting her sister back from wherever she was.  
  
"Earth to Paige... Phoebe was able to come up with a quick one." she said "Let's try it and hope that it doesn't turns him into a turkey."  
  
"Or at least that the turkey will be able to speak English." Added Phoebe showing them the piece of paper.

Let the magic that was done,

Dissappear, farewell, be gone.

The moment the charmed ones finalized the cast, magic spread around them in a blur of tiny lights and focused on Chris, surrounding him, swirling around his body that jerked, awoke and gasped in the middle of a small twister of glows that kept spinning around him faster and faster, emitting a sound that grew louder and louder until forming a brightening barrier around the teenager.  
  
"Uh... Why is every spell working so weird today?" shouted Piper over the gabble to Paige who didn't answer but stared at her. "What are you looking at?" Piper asked after a few seconds.  
Paige smiled at her sister question, shrugging.  
  
"You can protect yourself pretty well, can't you?"  
  
"What?" Unable to understand what was her sister talking about she just turned to Leo and Phoebe who weren't paying attention.  
  
"You powers are the most active ones in the Charmed ones..." Paige stated at the confused Piper. "The best in attack and a good protection."  
  
"Paige... can you focus on our little problem here?" the witch pointed at the lights around the half whitelighter from the future.  
  
"I'm focusing on the problem."  
  
"Yeah? What does this powers babbling have to do with Chris glowing crucible?"  
  
"Nothing... nothing at all" The witch's smile grew. "but I'm planing on do something and... well, let's say that I'll need a better protection than simply orbing stuff..."  
  
The orb that was imprisoning Chris started to slow, it's spinning and the brightness becoming less and less sharp until it was simply a weak glow around the visitant of the future and finally, nothing.  
  
From slightly afar, where he had been standing trying to give space to the sisters, Leo blinked twice, half bewildered half plainly stunned. Hastily, both emotions melted into disappointment. Although it was a stunned disappointment.  
  
The elder turned to his previous wife and was shocked when he saw that neither she nor Paige had been heeding to what had happened. Instead of that, they were looking at each other slightly unfocused. Leo motioned to them in an attempt to claim their attention.  
  
"Girls... I think that this didn't work..." he shot a quick look at Chris. "In fact I'm sure it didn't work." He heeled while, next to him, Phoebe simply knelt down.  
  
"Oh my god..." the empath exclaimed." He's so cute!!!!!"  
  
"Do you mind?" was Chris answer. "I'm a kid, not a puppet!!"  
  
Phoebe's smile wavered with the comment but stood there. Definitely, Chris witty and smart ass behaviour was something that the young man had mastered from infancy. She was going to ask about the kid's age, that was probably between 6 or 7, when a very clear feeling caught her. One of triumph and gloat. One of...  
  
"Demon!!!!" shouted kid Chris with panic in the same moment that Phoebe was turning to face Piper with a stunned gaze. A ball of black fire flew above her head, forcing the witch to whirl around and face a human like demon. Human like except for the long tentacles in the back of the head and the long sharp fingers. Well, let's say more or less human like.  
  
It looked around, stunned, like confused about his own whereabouts for half a second. But the moment it set it's eyes on them it's expression changed into a sadistic grimace.  
  
"You... you're my enemy..." he said, pointing one long finger at them. "You must die and then my order will be fulfilled and I'll be able to go back to the Deep."  
  
Leo ignored the megalomaniac babbling of the demon and focused on the sisters, wondering which one had pissed it off. Finally Paige took a step forward.  
  
"C'mon!! Give me a break!" she exclaimed "The part time jobs are my _raison d'etre_, they are important to me. And if you demon would stop hurting innocent people, I wouldn't have to keep getting rid of your family every time..."  
  
"What are you talking about?!?" it asked, momentarily disoriented.  
  
"Who was it? Your sister? Your cousin? Your mother in law? Who did I vanquished?"  
  
"No you idiot!! I don't give a damn about your part time job! I'm talking about the kid!!"  
  
All the presents turned to Chris who's face was suddenly wax white.  
  
"Me?" he asked, trying to retreat, but the wall was a very solid impediment for a 'run now ask later' tactic.  
  
"Yeah! You filthy piece of scum, you bag of shit, you..."  
  
"Ei! Mind your mouth!" protested Paige, grabbing a potion and throwing it. "He's a kid!"  
  
The demon ducked the potion and took a one single jump that went across the attic and landed just next to Chris who, out of fear, shut his eyes and orbed merely a few feet away. The creature moved forward him, but a fast kick from Phoebe threw it to the floor.  
  
"Chair!!" yelled Paige, trying to give Piper time to vanquish the demon. But her sister wasn't moving and the creature simply ducked hastily, evading the projectile that rushed past it and collided with Phoebe, knocking her unconscious. An elder lightning crossed the room, directed to the demon who ducked and threw himself to kid Chris who, too scared to orb or even to scream retreated into a ball in a pretty childish intent of defence. In fact the demon would had got him right there if a second lightning hadn't struck it in the back, throwing it over the kid and into a nearly wall. Seeing how the kid was now too scared even to move, Paige grabbed him and orbed away, far from the house. Weird enough, as soon as she and the kid reached the P3, they orbed back to the attic, next to Piper.  
  
"What the...?" started to say Paige, but stopped when Chris detangled himself from her arms and ran towards Piper.  
  
"Mum!!" the kid cried, grabbing the oldest charmed by the hip.  
  
Paige mind remained oblivious of the kid's words for some seconds and saw Piper looking down and arching her eyebrows in surprise when he touched her, and heard Phoebe's scream across the attic.  
  
"Chris, stay away from her!!!"  
  
But Chris didn't heard her, or made no notice of it for he simply sank his head in Piper's clothes, trembling while the woman turned to the demon that was rushing to her and gestured, throbbing it's arm, forcing him to relent, to stop the attack.  
  
Still smiling the woman grabbed the kid by the shoulders and threw him forward, to the slightly wounded demon.  
  
"You're here for him... kill the kid and get the hell out of here."  
  
"No!" Chris tried to retreat, but Piper pushed him again to the demon that grabbed him by the shoulder.  
  
"Piper what are you...!?" yelled Leo, moving towards them. But he couldn't take even a second step before Piper blowed him up.  
  
"Leo!" screamed Phoebe, getting to her feet with some difficulties.  
  
"Dad!!" exclaimed Chris, fighting to free himself without any sucess.  
  
"He said... 'mum'?" wondered Paige, obviously lost in her own world and not really aware of what was happening around her. "He said..." the witch came back to reality with a sudden realization, but just to see how Chris struggled under the demon's grasp, turning hopelessly to Piper.  
  
"Mum...please, I can't... I'm scared I can't... I can't orb... mum please!" he pleaded trying to reach the witch leg, to reach her. But Piper simply took a step back.  
  
"What are you waiting for?" Asked the sister to the creature that had been looking at her, frowning.  
  
As an answer, it turned to the kid and his eyes regained the bloodlust sight.  
  
"No! Please, no no no no!!" the kid cried trying to get away, watching in full terror how the demon raised a hand with blade like fingers.  
  
Out of reflection, Paige jumped from the place where she was standing, knowing even before setting herself in motion, that she was not going to get there in time.  
  
In the other side of the room, with the same feeling, Phoebe pushed herself forward, ignoring the piercing pain in her head and screamed in frustration her older sister name, trying to get her into reality. But nothing happened as the demon lowered it's hand and Chris yelled a last and desperate cry.  
  
"Wyatt!!"  
  
A blur of glows surrounded momentarily Chris while the Twice Blessed orbed into his arms, the shield appearing around them, throwing the demon across the attic.


	7. Let's not face the Fact

**And here goes the 7th chapter... I can't believe I made it so far... and It's all thanks to you all and, of course, to my wonderful beta (As Always... thaaaanks!!!)...**

**CaliforniaChick**: Thanks!

**Gimmeabreak**: Thank you... but I'll better end this one before starting a new one.

**Simone1**: Yep... Poor Chris, that's the spirirt.

**Magical** **Princess**: XDD Of course I'll explain. Just give me time

**Jennie**: Yep... I'm sorry to say that but I think it's currently possibñe to write a book just out of the plot holes in the series.Grammar: Yes... the _getting_ always gets me... stupid easy joke, but it's quite true.I hope your arm is better, and yep! The plot is thickening... now I just wish i knew where is it going... TT

**Caro**: About what you said… let me just paste a big smile like this and swear that I love your allucinations.

**Orcasnowleo**: Jejeje I'm updating just now.

**terra** **fea**: Glad to read you liked it better... and about Piper... mmm that's a good question, you know?

**Good** **Witch** : Can't help it… Evil people do evil cliffhanger

**Update**: Let's say they are very confused.

**Shukumei** **no** **Kagi**: Again, Poor chris is the general idea

**Laura**: Thanks!

**Christine** **Marquez**: Poor Piper too... crazy is not the exactly idea.

**zoned-out**: Read and find

**allaboutelephants22**: JAJAJAJAJA!!!! I'm glad you liked it that much!! And here is the next chapter so read and discover...

**KC-Piper**-**fan**: Thanks! I post as soon as I can, I swear.

**teal-lover**: ... Er... blinks blinks... in fact it's not that... but it would be an explanation...

**Ice**: Blush thaaanks

**Kilikapele** : Thanks to you! yes, I suppose it would be a shock, then again, in the Chramed family, maybe not...

**Lonie**: I'm glad you liked it, and by the way, I couldn't be more happy with my Beta.

**Lark1**: Suspensful? Thanks!

**Lark2**: People yelling at you in the reviews is so… flattering I'm joking. And _'soulful Chris-eyes begging'_ is tricky… nevertheless it made me feel guilty so I'll hive you a cookie in compensation… better?

**Ya**: Thanks

* * *

**And let's the story begin… well, continue…**

Phoebe gaped at her nephew's appearance, but Paige kept running. Rushing past Piper, she grabbed the two kids and tried to orb next to the Phoebe. Piper, however, had other plans, so she simply flicked her hands at her younger sister and Paige felt her shoulder exploding in pain.  
  
Phoebe stared at her in horror as she saw her falling in front of Chris and then she turned to Piper.  
  
Wyatt started to cry in Chris's arms.  
  
"Now, now... that was unexpected... " The older Halliwell said with an humourless smile, taking a step towards the kids. "You had to appear now when I've taken complete control of her?"  
  
"You... whoever you are... get away from them." Grunted Phoebe, her eyes darting from Piper to Paige and then finally to Chris. The kid was deathly pale, but slowly step backwards, to get away from the witch, taking Wyatt with him. Phoebe wondered if the shield would work with Piper.  
  
The witch, or whatever thing that had taken control over her, looked at Phoebe with barely an ounce of interest.  
  
"You shut up. What are you going do? Feel me to death?" Foe-Piper took another step towards the kids and Paige. "Now, you useless whitelighter give me the kid now, or I'll blow your sorry ass back to the future."  
  
Chris' grip on Wyatt grew tighter, but Phoebe was not sure if the kid, scared as he seemed, was actually understanding anything of what was going on. Wyatt's cries grew stronger too and somewhere between the tears he was actually calling for her mother.  
  
Phoebe tried to move to them, fearing that the kid would orb himself on Piper's arms; she took a step, but her head gave a throb that made the world spin around her even faster. _Count on Paige to throw a chair at your head in the middle of a battle..._ she grunted to herself.  
  
"Whatever..." exclaimed the older witch ignoring her "I'll jut have to..." but the empath never heard what Piper was really thinking to do, for her sister disappeared in a blurry of blue orbs.  
  
More or less at the same time, Leo reappeared in the same spot where Piper had vanquished him.  
  
"Wyatt!!" the elder ran to his son and grabbed him of Chris' arms, embracing the toddler fiercely.  
  
"God... you're okay, you're okay!!! You're okay? Why are you crying?" the elder looked around for first time and went pale when he saw Paige bleeding in the floor. He knelt down, still holding his son and placed a hand over the wound. "You're going to be alright, Paige, just lay down." he said once the witch was finally healed.  
  
"Piper... son..." she managed to say, weakly.  
  
"Don't worry, Wyatt's okay..." Leo told her reassuringly, but turned to Phoebe with a frown. Where was Piper?  
  
Phoebe, who had somehow managed to slowly make it over to them with out her head breaking into little pieces, shrugged. She had no idea where her sister was.  
  
"I think that Wyatt orbed her somewhere..." She said.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because the shield would hurt her, but he still had to protect himself and Chris..." Phoebe's eyes went from the elder to Chris, who was standing behind Leo and looking longingly at him. At... Dad. "Er... Leo, I'll explain it further later on, but right now I think that you should give me Wyatt and... er... help Chris...".  
  
Leo turned to the kid, really seeing him for the first time.  
  
"Are you hurt, Chris?" he asked in concern for the kid was deadly pale. Having finally found Wyatt, he had completely forgotten about the half whitelighter's current form.  
  
The kid nodded and showed him a small brush on the back of his hand.  
  
"This is just a scratch..." said Leo thoughtlessly, less worried. "Are you really hurt?"

Chris looked at the scratch and back at the elder, shooking his head, his lower lip trembling.  
  
"Great! You're a very lucky, young..."  
  
"Leo..." Phoebe interrupted him. "I do really think that you should give me Wyatt and take care of Chris' wounds like they deserve".  
  
Leo looked at her, reluctant to let go of Wyatt. Phoebe hardened her expression and pointed her chin to the older kid. Reluctantly, the elder gave his son to the witch and knelt down in front of Chris again, taking his hand and healing it.  
  
"Does it feel better now?"  
  
Chris nodded, looking up at him and breaking into silent sobs which quickly grew loud cries.  
  
"I'm... so... sorry... I'm so sorry... I cou... I'couldn't orb... I'm sorry..."  
  
Leo looked at the kid, startled. A part of him was still thinking along the young man that was his wife... ex-wife's cocky half whitelighter and the bloody bastard that had put him in the Valhalla. A part of him with though, surprisingly with Piper's voice, scolded the elder for using bloody bastard when referring to a kid who was obviously in the need of some console. When the tears came, Leo relented and pulled him in a soft embrace. He was even more surprised when the kid returned the gesture with a fierce hug and more cries. Slowly, the elder started to rock him. "It's okay, young man... c'mon, Chris...shhhh...it's okay.."  
  
"But... she... she... and he... and I was s...s...so scared... and..." The words between Chris sobs were hard to hear, but Leo was able to understand the basics. "and she was... mum was... mum... she..."  
  
Mum  
  
It was a basic three letters word.  
  
Easy to understand even between a kid' cries.  
Easy to understand even with Chris' face buried in Leo's shirt.  
As easy to understand as Phoebe significant look.  
  
Mum.  
  
He really doubted that Chris' was talking about the demon.  
  
Mum.  
  
Bewildered, Leo pulled Chris apart and looked at the childish, tear stained face.  
  
The wide red eyes, the trembling lips, there was something of Piper in that face. Coming to think of it, there were lots of her in the half whitelighter's blind stubbornness.  
  
"Dad?" The voice was soft and still full of panic, but it was also shy and worried.  
  
Dad.  
  
Chris buried his face in the elder's shoulder, and started to cry again. Leo didn't move. He was aware that he should be hugging him, or caressing his head in a very paternal way. But that would mean crossing the concept of Chris and the concept of fatherhood in the same thought.  
  
Dad.  
  
Chris. Fatherhood. Leo shivered.  
  
Phoebe, meanwhile, was holding a not so happy Wyatt. Weird enough, the concern she was feeling in the kid didn't had actually nothing to do with his mother disappearance.  
  
"Calm down, young man..."  
  
Phoebe half smiled at the weird situation, Wyatt was actually jealous of his not yet born brother... that thought put dozens of questions in her head. Questions like When? How? Why? Raced in her mind, although she was not so sure if they came from her own thoughts or from Leo's head.  
  
Probably from both.  
  
In her lap, Wyatt looked at her with a very cute grimace and went back to mourning.  
  
"Leo loves you still, he was very worried." She whispered, hugging the kid. " You'll just have to wait a little for his attention, ok?"  
  
In the corner of the room, the tentacle covered demon awoke and got up with a wild roar of vengeance. "I'll get you, you treacherous little...!!!!" and, without any further explanation, exploded.  
  
Wyatt cheered in Phoebe's arms.

"What's happened?" asked Leo, turning in surprise.  
  
_On the other hand, you can just vanquish a demon in front of him_, the empath though._ That will get his attention too._  
  
"I think that Wyatt just vanquished that demon..." Phoebe confessed.  
  
"Wyatt? But... he... he can't..."  
  
"He can, you know, being twice blessed and all that..."  
  
Leo smiled proudly, making Phoebe feel a little guilty for being about to break his bubble of proudness.  
  
"I think that he's actually trying to regain your attention".  
  
The elder blinked a little startled, then smiled and bent down to carefully take Wyatt out of the sister's hands.  
  
"You see Wyatt? Nothing to worry about." The elder nursed his son. "I love you, and I was soooo concerned about you... and I'm so happy that you're alright..."  
  
Without realizing, Leo let go of Chris so to grab Wyatt better.  
  
Phoebe coughed.  
  
Leo grabbed Chris again, hardly able to get a grip of both kids at the same time.  
  
"I think you will have to master how to do this." said the empath.  
  
Her ex brother-in-law made a 'Don't-you-dare-mock-at-me-and-what-the-hell-I-am-supposed-to-do???' grimace at her, and Phoebe felt slightly sorry for him, so volunteered. "Do you want me to hold one of them?"  
  
Leo thought about it, but Chris had already fallen asleep in his shoulder so he shook his head. "No, it's alright. How's Paige?".  
  
"I'm fine." The youngest charmed said from the floor. "Once the ceiling will shut up, I'll be perfect."  
  
"Nice..." the elder's face turned to Phoebe again.  
  
The witch felt Leo's concern for Piper and nodded at his silent question. "Why don't you put the  
kids in Piper's bed and then we could start... er... looking for that?"  
  
He nodded and, taking a better grip of both kids and stood up. It wasn't that hard to do once he realized to take balance of both children.  
  
"I'll be right back."  
  
And while Phoebe and Paige helped each other to the Book of Shadows, Leo went to Piper's room... the one that had been also his, not so long ago. The one that even smelled like her former wife.  
  
Once there, he put Wyatt in his cradle and sat in the bed and laid Chris down, covering him with a blanket, ruffling his soft hair, a little lighter than the one of his older version. His older version... there was a talk waiting there... but that bridge would have to be crossed later, with the right Chris. Right now this Chris was but a scared child. Piper's child. His... no no no... not now...that was yet another bridge that he would cross later. The future was starting to look like a whole aqueduct of talks.

In the bed, the kid whimper and awoke with a start. Leo put a reassuring hand in his shoulder.  
  
"Are you alright?"  
  
Chris nodded.  
  
"Yes dad... Why am I in your room?"  
  
Mine? A little, selfish, deep part of Leo made a scream of victory. His Room!! That was good, wasn't it? If it was his and it was Piper's... Chris slightly worried look took him back to reality.  
  
Dad.  
  
"Sorry... Because your Aunt Phoebe, Paige and I have to do something and you two have to sleep."  
  
Chris nodded again, serious and a little worried.  
  
"I'll put protections around the room, so you will be in no danger." Leo said, trying to ease Chris' worry. " Nothing will disturb your dreams..."  
  
"I'm not worried, Wyatt will protect me." The kid's eyes were starting to close.  
  
Leo felt another wave of proudness for his older son rush over him. Then remembered that Wyatt was going to turn evil in the future.  
  
But if Chris was... if he was his... then he was Wyatt's...  
  
Another bridge.  
  
"Will he?" he said in a low soft voice.  
  
"Yes... oh, and Dad..." Chris' voice was more and more soft.  
  
Dad.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"About Wyatt..."  
  
Dad.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Someone turned him into a toddler. I think that you should look in the book of shadows."  
  
Leo blinked twice and suppressed a laugh since the kid had finally went back to sleep. Placing the protection rocks in their places, he closed the door carefully and went back to the attic.  
  
Dad.  
  
While walking up the stairs, the elder heard the sisters discussing.  
  
"Pikes... I say it will be pikes..." "I'm not sure... I think he'll prefer something more magical... maybe a potion."  
  
"Or the tk thing..."  
  
"Perhaps... then again, it's possible that he decides for a less magical way to do it."  
  
"Like rocks? He won't stone us, will he?"  
  
"I was more in the line of... guns."  
  
"No way, he dislikes guns. He'll spike us... or beat us with what remains of the attic furniture"  
  
Leo entered the room. "I hope you're not talking about the demon that took Piper away."  
  
Both witches looked up at him.  
  
"In fact we were talking about how will Chris kill us once we break the charm." confessed Paige "Although I'm not sure if he'll have to me enough, because Piper is going to kill him so much once she discovers... well... when she discovers..."  
  
"... the fact." said Leo, finishing Paige's words. "When she discovers the fact."  
  
"Yeah, the fact." The youngest Halliwell agreed. "That's it. The fact".  
  
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Leo went to the point.  
  
"So... cough cough what did you say that happened to my wife... ex- wife?..."  
  
"Not for too long." murmured Phoebe.  
  
"You saying...?" Paige turned to her.  
  
"Nothing..." she answered, and to evade her sister's piercing look she started to explain it all to Leo, who took the news of his missing ex (or not) wife quite well. Phoebe suspected that somewhere near the surface of Leo's mind the words Chris and Fatherhood where occupying a far more urgent place than Piper and Missing. After all, a Charmed One acting weird and disappearing was no news.  
  
"So Wyatt just sent Piper away?" he asked, avoiding with surgical precision the 'Chris calling Wyatt stuff'.  
  
Paige nodded, there was something funny with Piper and they all knew. They all had seen her pushing kid Chris to the demon and ,with or without The Fact, that was something Piper would never do.  
  
"Yes, Phoebe thinks that he did it because she was a threat, but he didn't wanted to hurt her." she said.  
  
"So... any idea about what's happened to her? Is she possessed?"  
  
"It could be a shapeshifter thing, couldn't it?" wondered Paige.  
  
Leo shoved away the idea. "No way, Wyatt would have known it, and Phoebe would have sensed her."  
  
"So..." Paige turned to the sister. "did you sensed something?"  
  
"In fact..." the empath answered shooting a look at her sister. "I sensed lots of weird things... lots and lots..."  
  
"For example?"  
  
"You."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I sensed you..."  
  
"You can't sense me... there's the potion."  
  
"But I did, before, when you were all homicidal with Chris..."  
  
Paige glared at Phoebe. "I beg your pardon? I was 'all homicidal'? You were the one that wanted to interrogate him."  
  
"Me? When?"  
  
"When he was thirteen."  
  
"C'mon... I just wanted to ask a few questions."  
  
"Yeah! And by the sound of it, force the answers out with some electrodes..."  
  
Phoebe gaped, that was so incredible. "That's so not true!"  
  
"Yes, it is! You queen of the rhymes."  
  
"What happens with my rhymes?"  
  
"Nooothing..." Paige went to the wastebasket, bent down, and took a piece of paper. "...and do it schlock."  
  
Phoebe grabbed the paper and read it.  
She read it again.  
She checked the back of the paper, looking for some other writing.  
  
"This rhyme is horrible!" She said, finally. "I can't have written this!"  
  
"Well... then the shapeshifter that no one noticed is the worse spell writer ever, because I saw you writing it."  
  
Phoebe glared at her again, but then nodded. "I do remember writing this shit. But I can't have written it, even now I can think with hundred better rhymes than... this."  
  
Paige nodded. "I know what you mean... I remember being mad at Chris... I really wanted to kill him. But it's like if I was thinking that through cotton... er... if that's makes any sense."  
  
"It does... somehow..."  
  
Leo, unnoticed by the sisters, frowned at that comment and went to the book of shadows.  
  
"Anyway, I also felt Piper before I felt you... and she was mad at Chris too... although that's comprehensible, isn't it?"  
  
"It's comprehensible that she was angry, but not that much you could actually sense her... us... that potions should have last for, at least, some months... Can you feel me?"  
  
Phoebe ducked he head, trying to sense something in Paige.  
  
"No... right now I can only sense my head thundering."  
  
Paige looked at her in concern and saw the dry blood plastered in Phoebe's hair.  
  
" Oh my god! Are you hurt, honey? You should have told Leo. Leo! Leo!!"  
  
"Yes, Paige?" he asked, without averting his eyes from the book.  
  
"Phoebe needs blue orbs in her head."  
  
"Yeah, ok" He agreed, but kept flipping the pages.  
  
"Leo!"  
  
"What?" The elder snapped out of whatever he was searching.  
  
"Phoebe. Head. Pain. And what are you looking for?"  
  
" I just remembered something that..." The moment the angel turned and left the book, it started to flip it's pages alone.  
  
"Look! The son of a... tree... is finally helping." Grunted Phoebe, forgetting her own headache and leaning over the book that had finally stopped in one of the first pages.  
  
"_SoulShadow demon_" she read "_Bodiless demon that hunts for powerful witches. It finds a temporary female host and lays between her soul and her brain, taking control of her actions without overshadowing her will. The SoulShadow usually makes deals with other creatures, demons, warlocks, or humans that will pay it for some prey or goal. The payment is, usually, a soul to eat._"  
  
"This is what I was looking for..." exclaimed the elder. "That's why Phoebe could sense you... and why you two were acting all weird before..."  
  
"Because we had this... SoulShadow parasite in us?"  
  
"Yes... listen this, taking control of her actions without overshadowing her will. That's why it couldn't harm Wyatt, it couldn't do something you wouldn't to do." The elder explained.  
  
"Okay... so a demon that we can't touch, possessed us and made us do things that we wanted to do... like kill Chris" said Paige. Then, as an afterthought, she added "... you know... I didn't want to kill Chris. This makes no sense."  
  
"No, it does..." Phoebe answered. "Because he can't generate the feelings, but can push 'em. Like... make them evolve. So if we were angry at Chris because he had taken Wyatt away, it managed to turn the anger into hate, and then into... murderous feelings. Is that right?" she turned to Leo who nodded.  
  
"But there's a flaw in the plan... " The empath complained. "If it wanted Wyatt... there's no way none of us would ever harm him."  
  
Leo thought about it. "Maybe he didn't want to harm him... just to kidnap him."  
  
"Well, I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't do that either, would we?" snapped Phoebe.  
  
Paige bit her lip, there was something on that. "Well... or maybe we would..."  
  
"Sorry?"  
  
"I mean, that we wouldn't kidnap him..." clarified the witch " But it probably could use us, our fears and our worries to make us bring him somewhere. Anyway, what I can't understand is Piper... what about her? Why would she push kid Chris to the demon?"  
  
"Well, she was pretty angry at him this morning..." Pointed out Phoebe "Maybe the demon used that."  
  
"No way..." protested Leo. "As angry as she was... maybe it could have made her actually kill an older Chris, but she wouldn't have delivered him to a demon. Especially a 6 years old kid that was in tears."  
  
"Then? What about her?" asked Paige. "Why did it affect her differently than us?"  
  
"I don't know." Answered Leo, defeated. "I just knew this kind of demon by references, and the book doesn't says anything about it. In fact the entry is pretty old... and not very specific."  
  
Paige grunted. "That's wonderful, because the only other more or less reliable source that we have about demons is going to awake in around eight hours and ask for a glass of milk. Now, I propose to find Piper, pack her in between some rocks to make sure that none of us gets taken over by the parasite, and break the spell on Chris."  
  
"Can't we keep kid Chris?" pouted Phoebe. "I like him..."  
  
"No, we can't." Paige shot a look at her sister. "We need the neurotic whitelighter. He knew this was going to happen that's why he took Wyatt away."  
  
"You're right, we need him. We have to get him back so we can save Piper." Agreed Phoebe.  
  
"Theeen... he will have to answer to a lots of questions. And no future consequences bullshit..."  
  
-------------- 

That's it until next update.

The next chapter is already written, I just have to adjust a few things and send it to be beta readed so I can be sure that I've write it in english.

Thank you all!!


	8. Ther REALLY should stop with the spells

**8th chapter up!**

**Charmed is not my story, and the characters in this fic are not mine. The only actual reward I'm going to earn from this is the gloating over the rewards.**

It's been a little, sorry, I tried to do this as soon as I could, but Hotmailrrrrummmm attacked again and... well, I won't bore you all with the fight and the blood and the post party in elderland (the gowns... gosh, the gowns... they are sooo... golden... ).

Lots of rviews said that you'd liked little Chris... I did too, he's just soooo cute... well, you'll see him again, dying and dismembered by... nop, I was jocking (Pukah ducks all the glares and daggers). Read and you'll see.

**Of course, I want to thank my good reviwers, you're wonderful, I can't but aware you all with he Oscar to the best reviwers ever.**

**Jennie**: Yes... it hurts to take away the stitches, but's just a moment... more or less. And about the fic... I thought Phoebe would like to keep kid Chris (yep... I think he is cute), and I really enjoted writing the LeoChris part... oh, I'm going to enjoy writing all the LeoChris parts. And thanks! I'm really glad to know that you like it

**CaliforniaChick:** Thanks!! I think that lil Chris is cute too, U And about Piper… you'll know soon.

**allaboutelephants22**: I'm happy that you like the ideas, because sometimes I'm not sure if they make any sense at all… I'm trying to write it more or less coherent, thought. And about Leo and Chris' relationship… well, as Chirs himself said in the show… they have some _issues_.

**Lark:** Thanks... I'll try to post something else soon... and about fixing him... BWAHBWAHBWAHBWAH!!(evil laugh)

**teal-lover: **XD I swear that I will answer all that questions sooner or later.

**YoshimiWolfspaw :** Thanks... updating updating updating

**Dannyblue: **Yep, I loved too Chris's calling for Wyatt, and pretty proud of that part.

**Buffgirl:** Thanks... updating right now.

**terra fea: XDD** thanks!

**Hoshi Tamamushiirono: **Here it goes.

**Christine Marquez:** yep, that's it, possessed…

**Chrissister/Melinda: **Just don0t worry, you can comment that you like my story as mani times as you want. Thank!

**deranged black kitten of doom: **XDD I love your nick... and I'm glad it hooked you.

_And here it goes on..._

_My voice I let ring clear,  
Make my sister reappear. _

_  
_Phoebe read the spell she'd just wrote just moments and looked around. Nothing happened so she crumpled up the paper and threw it in the basket.

It was a large basket.  
And it was so full that the paper merely bounced on the top of the last try outs and fell to the floor."Any luck with the maps?" the witch asked to her sister that was seating in the floor next to her, bent down upon various maps."Phoebe, honey the moment I find something, I'll let you know, I swear... so stop asking!" answered Paige. With a gesture of surrender, the witch threw the crystal across the attic and swore colourfully.

"What the hell is happening with our magic?" she asked, mourning. "I mean, every single rhyme we've cast today have ended being a failure, or directly dangerous."

They had tried every thing, from the blood to blood to the few other rhyming couplets they'd found. But not one of them, including the ones in the book and those Phoebe had wrote, had worked.

Also the lack of success in scrying had finally burned Leo's patience and the elder had left for the underworld, to search by himself. The sisters just hoped he was okay.

Phoebe finished a new spell and tried it.  
_I'm pissed with this all going wrong,  
Give me my sister or I'll sing a song  
  
_

Paige' head rose from the map. "That was a threat? You were trying threaten the magic? With singing? Are you that SoulShadow again or are you plainly losing your main?"

Phoebe's "You're-not-funny" glare shut her up.

  
  
---ooo---

Chris... kind of awoke in the middle of the stairs with a knife in his hands.

That was weird. Not weirder than when a herd of Teddy Bears Demons had tried to rip him and Wyatt up, but weird nevertheless.

Everything was a little confusing, he had a feeling of restlessness, as if he had been sleeping but wakening up every now and then. Yawning, the young teen just went down to the kitchen and put the knife back in it's place.

It was pretty cold down there, the parlour's double doors were open and rain was pouring into the kitchen. Chris closed them, nearly soaking himself.He had had a dream, although he was not sure what was it about.Mum had been there, and the aunts. Even Leo, and the elder usually didn't showed up even in his dreams. And they all where talking gibberish about the past and Wy being lost and...  
Chris had come back to the kitchen for a glass of milk, opened the fridge, grabbed the bottle, poured some milk in a mug and tried to open the microwave.

But it wasn't there.

He put the mug on the table and looked again at his surroundings.

The photo of Wy and him in the park was missing, as the one with the whole family from the last Christmas. And there was a TV where there should have been the toaster, and an old fashioned microwave where there should have been the electric kettle.  
Weird.

"So... no dream?" he muttered to himself.

---ooo---

"Do you think he will get really mad at us?" asked Paige, she had finally dropped the scrying and was running through the magic books in the attic.

"Probably." Answered Phoebe. "Although... I wonder why he didn't tell us anything about it...""I'm not sure... I suppose that for all that future consequences stuff." Paige gathered a new book and flipped it's pages. "It must have been hard... for him I mean. We've haven't been the most greeting family.""He deserved half of what we've been putting him through, though." Protested Phoebe, throwing a new piece of paper to the mountain around the bucket. There was no way she could think of a new spell.

"Yes, but... Think of it... going to the... Here!!" Paige went to her sister and showed her a new spell. "To find those who have been lost no matter their actual localization. Works even in other plans. This must be our shot... even if she is in some other plan it will work."

"Okay... let's try it." Phoebe wasn't so sure, the last three spells had been meant to be their shot.

_Across the planes, across the skies,  
Listen what we now demand,  
If she is hidden, break the lies,  
Bring Piper back to her land._

They waited. Nothing.

---ooo---

Chris was in the kitchen.

And he was very sleepy, so sleepy that he couldn't remember having gone downstairs. Not exactly, although he did remember having gone to the attic at some point in the night. He didn't even know if he had reached it or not.

What was he doing downstairs?

Maybe he was hungry or thirsty.

He did not remember being hungry or being thirsty, though.

But as he had gone down there... well, there was no bad in grabbing a cookie at... the kid looked at the clock in the kitchen, but it wasn't there. Anyway it was dark, so it should have been around midnight.

And having a cookie at midnight was not bad, was it?

And if he had gone to the kitchen, it meant that he was hungry... and if it was midnight, because it had to be midnight, he should not wake mummy.

No, better just grab the cookie and go back to sleep very fast, because Wyatt had told him about something, not exactly a demon but evil nevertheless, that crawled in the houses at night, looking for kids that were awake after eight o'clock.

Wyatt was seven and a half, he was not a kid anymore, so he was allowed to stay until half past eight.

Chris took a stool and placed it under the cookies shelf, he just would grab a cookie. And if the evil creature appeared and asked what he was doing, Chris would just give him a cookie too.

The kid grabbed for the cookie's box, took one, and sat on the stool to eat it.

He was very sleepy, so once the cookie had been eaten, he just yawned and fell asleep in that very spot.

---ooo---

"Next thing we will do after we find Piper and get rid of the demon and have the chat with Chris, is buying new books" groaned Phoebe. "I'm pretty sure that there must have been a new edition of..." she closed the book and looked at it's front "_Spells and Charms for the modern witch_ since 1892... how modern is that?"

"It's better than this..." Paige showed her the book she was holding very carefully. "_Handy spells_ edited in 1820..."

"I was thinking... How did Chris grow up?" The middle Charmed asked changing the subject. "I mean, do you think that we're going to be good aunts?"

"Let's see..." Paige answered, from behind her old volume. "For what we know, we have a neurotic nephew, which is bad... but not as bad as the psychotic one..."

Phoebe sighed.

"Yeah... that's not a good score, is it?"

"No it's not, but..."

"But?"

"But even if Chris is a neurotic, we must have done something good"

Phoebe looked at her sister. "What do you mean?"

Paige raise her head from the book he was reading, she was wearing a strange smile.

"He came here... Chris did the stinkin' time travel thing. And he have been bugging us into the demons crusade for half a year... without telling us a thing even if that would have eased his situation... there're some guts there, don't you think?"

The empath nodded. "Yes... some guts... more or less than the guts you must have to face your brother?"

"I'm not following you there?"

"He comes from a future where Wyatt is evil... he's been fighting Wyatt... fighting his brother."

There was something so wrong in that idea, thought Phoebe. Just like having to fight Piper... to oppose her.

"Forget about that now and focus on finding Piper." Paige handed her a new book. "Let's try this one..."

Phoebe looked at the page, relieved of having something else to think about, and shot a darting glare at her sister. Paige shrugged, at this very moment, she'd try whatever spell they'd found.

_Keys, clothes, books and socks,  
Replace the object that I've lost,  
So I have complete stocks,  
And I'm happy without cost._

They didn't even look around for a result.

---ooo---

Chris lifted his head from the table with a start, looking around.

He was in the manor?

How had he end up in the manor?

Oh, wait! Leo had found him!! The half whitelighter banged his head to the table, and his arm gave him a shot of pain. Sharp pain. It was broken, or at least it hurt as if it was.

Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!! He had let them find him!!!

And then... but what had happened before was pretty much a blur of his father sending him across the attic. Leo was pissed, not that Chris could be surprised by that...the elder had all right to be pissed at him.

Absentmindedly, Chris took a cookie from the jar with the good arm. The other hurt, but it was that kind of dumb pain that is bearable but a promise of hells in short time.

Anyway... what was he doing in the kitchen? Where were they? And worse, where was Wyatt? At least the kid was safe where he had left him... the SoulShadow would not be able to find him there... probably.

He took another cookie.

At least he would not if he had the opportunity to vanquish him. That's if he had the opportunity to find where it was, which sister it had possessed, and talk the other two into capturing him.

Coming to think of it... it was going to be a hell of a night.

The future witch sighed and got up from the stool receiving another painful shot from the arm but ignoring it, he could swear that he could hear his aunts in the attic, he would go there and...

---ooo---

"Let's try it now!, I've rewrote it a little." proposed Paige, and as she had no better idea, Phoebe agreed.

_Keys, sisters, books and socks,  
Replace the object that is lost,  
So I have complete stocks,  
And I'm happy without cost. _

---ooo---

Chris looked around, a cookie in his hand, rain pouring to the windows of the manor.

The manor... so he was still there. In the trap.

And Wyatt was messing with his mind again.

But if the demons wanted to make a hell of his life, he would show them how much could him turn their lives into hell.

He grabbed a knife.

They were powerful demons. Damn demons looking like his family. Dead demons if it were up to him. Dead. He would destroy them.

Destroy. Kill. Vanquish. That what you do before they do it to you.

Chris walked back to the stairs, and started to climb them up. Slowly, he did not want the demons to know.

---ooo---

"You know what?" snapped Phoebe. "This is definitely not working. The SoulShadow must have done something to our powers, because at least for the probability laws, we should have found a spell that worked by now."

Paige nodded and put a book back in it's shelf.

Orbs filled a corner of the room and Leo appeared. His clothes were torn and half burned but he seemed okay.

"Have you found her?" asked both, the charmed ones and Leo at the same time.

"No." They all answered.

"But I had an idea." Continued Leo. "It may not work, but I think that's our best shot."

"Is it a spell?" asked Phoebe. "Because if it's a spell you can put it right where the sun don't..."

"It's not a spell." Leo sat down in a chair, nearly the last furniture standing in the attic. "It's Wyatt, he may be able to bring Piper back."

---ooo---

He climbed the stairs up carefully, avoiding those that creaked.

The house was such a perfect recreation of the manor that even the banisters had some of it's marks... but it was not perfect, though. For a start, there was a missing scratch in the stairs wood, from the time when he had tried to skate downstairs. He had his own big scratch in the knee from that experience.

Chris shook his head, trying to focus. It was hard to focus lately; lots of things were creeping in his head. Voices, people, talking... remembering the past. Making him angrier. They should die... all of them. They should die; the demons should die. Maybe then all the dead people would stop claiming revenge in his head. His brother. His fault.

With a heavy breath, Chris used the knife to cut a thin line in his arm.

Pain.

He knew about pain. Pain was real, physical. It kept you centered.

The half whitelighter smiled and went upstairs, there was a something crawling in the house tonight. It was not a demon, but definitely evil.

---ooo---

"Wyatt...?"

The sisters crossed sights.

"Yes, he sent her away, didn't he? Well... maybe he can bring her back."

"And how are you going to make him do it?" asked Paige, talking slowly, as if Leo had some kind of mental disorder.

"I'll ask him".

"Ah..." Paige bit her lip, for it was no moment for witty comments. "I'm not sure it will work".

"Do you have a better idea?"

The charmed sighed, no, they didn't.

---ooo---

He was near now, nearly at the door. He could hear them, their words.

They were chatting, planning. Plotting. And finally, moving. Someone was heading to the door. Chris felt his own smile grew wider, and a part of him was suddenly aware that lately he only smiled when hunting.

And with grandpa. Grandpa made him smile. But now grandpa was dead too.

---ooo---

"I'll go for him" proposed Phoebe, getting up. "Although I'm not happy on waking him up. It's nearly one in the morning..."

---ooo---

The door started to open. Chris levelled the knife. Just a strike, in the heart.

---ooo---

"Wait!" Leo exclaimed. Phoebe turned, a hand in the half opened door. "I'll go with you, if we're gonna wake him up..." said the elder.

Phoebe smiled. "Yeah, Dad, you'll be the first one he'll see."

---ooo---

Two?... Chris frown, he just hoped that those were not upper level demons. Anyway, at least he would get them first. Dear aunt Phoebe.

---ooo---

"But you can't go down there like this..." still not moving, the empath grabbed a piece of what lasted of Leo's shirt. "You'll scare your kids..." and as Leo rose his head she added. "Both of them" and smiled wickedly at the blush in the elder's cheeks.

"Can we go now?" he asked, trying to pretend not to be reddening."Wait a sec... let's see... _So you won't scare Wyatt and Chris, the mangle clothes I arrange like this_..."

And as Leo's shirt and trousers sewed themselves into more or less normality, she opened finally the door.

---ooo---

"Ouch!" Chris yelled as his aunt stumbled into him, throwing the young teen to the floor.

"Chris?"Chris looked up at his aunt and then down at the knife he was holding, bewildered. What was about him and knives lately? He dropped it under the little closet of the corridor and looked up again.

Up at his aunt's short hair.

Not, it had not been a dream, after all.

"Hi... Phoebe... are you alright?"

Phoebe looked down at her thirteen years old nephew, stunned. "What are you doing here? You were sleeping in Piper's... you were... you..."

"What happened?" Leo's head appeared behind his aunt shoulder. "Chris? You're a teenager..."

_After that statement, he should start wondering how many birthdays he's missed_, the kid thought, but as it was nonsense, he simply shrugged at Leo.

_Ok, people... that's all for now... I wanted this chapter to be about them finding piper and that... but this is what came out...___


	9. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Hi there!!!

Well, here comes the new chapter.

**CaliforniaChick: **I liked that also. I was a little afraid that it would be weird, but I think that it went pretty well.

**IcantthinkofaFnick:** Here it is.

**Christine Marquez: **Thanks! Although kid chris is cute, and teen Chris is funny, actually the one I prefer to write about is Psico-Chris. It's just soooo fun...

**YoshimiWolfspaw: **Yap... you said chappie, but don't worry, it's already been forgotten (chappie chappie chappie chappie)... need.pills.now

**allaboutelephants22:** I don't like either all the 'Now-I-forget-hate-you-and-everything-is-okay' (it's like giving all brand new powers to Chris... It just doesn't fits in the character...). And the madness will never end (what would be the pint of the show if it did??), but I can let you some of my dried frogg happy pills. And about the cookie... I took a while to update, but can I have half? Pretty please?  
**terra fea:** XD Yep... you have to thank my beta for having him back for some minutes... she gave me absentmindly the idea... evil grin

**charmedlizard:** Don't go mad... doctors say that if I turn someone else mad I'll be off cookies for a week!! Here's the update.

**Gossy707:** Here it is, hope you like it

I've still to write the next chapter, although I already know what will happen (or at least what shoud happen), so in some days it should be beta-ed and all.

Thanks again and forever to all the reviwers and sorry if I can't update more. Er... just grab a cookie as a bribe and look at my puppy sorry eyes.  
(Puupy Sorry eyes!!)

Lately in Charmed:

_"What happened?" Leo's head appeared behind his aunt's shoulder. "Chris? You're a teenager..."  
  
After that statement, he should start wondering how many birthdays he's missed. Thought the kid, but as it was nonsense, he simply shrugged at Leo._

"What can I say, Mr. Obvious?"  
  
"Well... you weren't... you were seven o six years old a few hours ago..." protested Phoebe.  
  
"Seven or six?" he asked, slightly bewildered.  
  
"Yes, seven or six and you called Wyatt and he came and..." The witch looked at him and breathed deeply. " What the hell is going on today?? What is it? Witches fools day?"  
  
The empath cursed colourfully and bent down to help Chris get up.

He accepted the help, a little startled. He didn't know Aunt Phoebe had that... vocabulary... In fact, he didn't even know the meaning of some of those words, that is if they were really words.  
  
"Let me guess, you're still screwed because of your trying to screw my mind." he guessed. At least the charmed ones had the decency to look a little ashamed. Leo, though, just gave him a Look. One of those so feared stares that had earned a capital letter."You should mind your vocabulary, young man." He said.  
  
"Says who?" The kid snapped out of habit, staring back. There were no capital letters in his looks, but they were worth some italics.

It was so wrong having Leo telling him how to correctly behave. It was like if Wyatt had tried to teach him about misusing their powers. Or Paige had advised someone against dying hair.  
  
An awkward silence followed his question.  
  
Chris saw Phoebe opening her mouth to answer back and Paige elbowing her. He saw too the frown on his father's forehead , it was not an angry one but concerned.  
  
He knew this kind of silence.  
  
Something was wrong again, and it was about him.  
  
Maybe they know the truth, he thought startled, then again it could be a very different thing... his family used to be concerned for him by about anything, from not having enough social live to how much potato he served himself for breakfast. So guessing why they were looking at him like if he had grown a second head was useless.  
  
But the silence was getting on his nerves.  
  
It always did, but he had a tactic for these situations... he changed subjects.  
  
"Where is Piper?"  
  
And the silence grew thicker. Great.  
  
Leo broke it with a cough.  
  
"She's missing." He explained, then added in a hurry. "But don't worry, we'll get her back."  
  
"Missing?" He asked, turning to Paige for he was not in the mood of talking with his father. "What do you mean she's missing?"  
  
And Paige explained to the kid what had happened, at least part of it. She explain how he had changed into mini-Chris, the demon had appeared, Piper was behaving weird, Wyatt had appeared... er... out of nowhere (at this moment Leo had said something about going to fetch Wyatt and had orbed out of the attic), the toddler had vanquished the demon and had orbed Piper away for she was a threat.  
  
"Wait, wait, wait..." Chris said once the witch had finished talking. "Wyatt vanquished a demon? He's just one year old... that's not fair."  
  
The empath's face dropped.  
  
"That's all you have to say?" she asked. "I mean, Piper is missing, you know? And you're changing randomly, and our magic doesn't work correctly... and all you can do is moan about Wyatt being so powerful?"  
  
Chris glared at her, he was not moaning at Wyatt being powerful.  
  
If his brother, the almighty and wonderful Twice Blessed, was able to vanquish a demon being one year old, he was nothing but happy and proud about it.  
  
After all, he was the Oh-so-great twice blessed. Wyatt The Great. Owner of Excalibur. Wyatt Halliwell, aka The most powerful being in the magic world. No, he was not moaning about his brother being all powerful.  
  
At that moment, Leo orbed back carrying his big brother who looked like a toddler who was not so happy being waken in the middle of the night. Chris wondered what would happen if he just tattooed something in the kid's forehead.

'Almighty Asshole' would do the trick.

"Hush hush, c'mon my boy... shhhh!!!" said Leo, trying to calm down his son before he get into a full tantrum. "Have you... er... told Chris what's happened?" he asked.  
  
"Most of it." Phoebe answered.  
  
What that meant was that they hadn't told him everything.  
  
Chris still glared at his brother. It was childish, he knew it, but the image of Leo rocketing him carefully was not easing his little attack of jealousy.

"So what are you going to do?" the teen asked Paige. Trying to get a grip of himself, he walked to the Book and took a look at the Demon entry while she explained the whole Wyatt calling Piper thing.  
  
"It's a good idea." He conceded, closing the book.  
  
"It was Leo's." Phoebe said hastily. "He thought of it. He's really worried about Piper."  
  
Paige looked at her sister with the more meaningful stare she could manage. It was asking what the hell was she talking about.  
  
Chris snorted, of course he cared, she was his wife.  
  
"Even with all what's happened, he loves her, you know?" the witch went on, ignoring her sister and looking meaningfully at the kid. "And it looks as if they're going to solve their problems sooner or..."  
  
"Why don't we go on with the plan?" Leo interrupted the conversation, glaring at Phoebe and holding a less pissed Wyatt. "Remember Piper? Your sister? Wyatt's mother?"  
  
The empath gave up. "Yeah, I remember..."  
  
"Great, now... " Leo set Wyatt on the floor and kneeled in front of him, trying to focus on what to do now. "Let's see... Wyatt, can you please bring Piper back?"  
  
Nothing happened, nothing but Chris' snort.  
  
"You're not helping Chris..." snapped Leo. "C'mon Wy, I know you can understand me. And I know you miss mummy... but we need her here to help her".  
  
The Maybe-Twice-Blessed-But-Right-Now-Pissed looked at him blankly until he mentioned 'mummy', then looked around searching her.  
  
"Mummy?" said the kid with a pout. "Mummy!"  
  
"Mummy is not here, hon..." said Paige. "We need you to bring her back..."  
  
"Mummy!!" insisted Wyatt, the lack of sleep and all those adults around him talking about a mummy that was not there and that wasn't coming to him even if he was screaming (something that usually worked to claim her attention) put the kid in a cliff. So he reacted as any one year and a week old, someday an all powerful witch would. He started a full tantrum.  
  
"Shit!" muttered Chris while Leo grabbed the toddler and started to pace up and down, trying to calm him down.  
  
"Let's say that this didn't work, ok?"  
  
"Yeah... too much for the almighty Charmed Ones..." Chris got up and walked to the Book of Shadows, unaware of the stare Phoebe was throwing at him.

She had heard that before.

Psycho Chris had said the same thing just before trying to kill Piper. It was hard to think about this Chris and Psycho Chris as the same person.  
  
"We should tell him that we know." She whispered to Paige who was right next to her.  
  
"Later... when Piper is alright and we've solved the SoulShadow demon affair."  
  
Phoebe nodded in agreement.  
  
"Anyway I feel sorry for him, he must be pretty worried, but he can't show it..." Paige said.  
  
"I don't know..." the middle sister answered. "He didn't reacted very worried when I told him about Piper..."  
  
"He must have been playing brave." Paige stated. "He can't be too worried or we will suspect."  
  
Again, Phoebe wasn't so sure. She approached Chris.  
  
"Are you alright?" She asked him.  
  
The kid looked at her from the book, arching an eyebrow.  
  
"Why shouldn't I?" he asked, then frowning in suspicion, added. "You haven't cast another spell on me, have you?"  
  
Phoebe smirked. "No, we haven't... but with Piper missing and you... er... changing constantly, I'd be worried."  
  
Chris shrugged.  
  
"I'm worried... more or less..."  
  
"More or less...?"  
  
"Well, I've lived with magic since I was born... accidents like this happens every now and then... once my brother turned me into a cow... a big pink cow." Chris laughed at the memory and Phoebe melt down at the smile. Older Chris smiles were edgy, kind of bitterly.  
  
"A big pink cow? Your mother must have been mad at him for that."  
  
Chris laughed again.  
  
"She got mad at both of us... I just changed him into a big yellow chicken. He kept waking and finding smashed eggs in his bed for a week or so..."  
  
Now it was Phoebe's turn to bust into laughs.  
  
"I bet she loved it..." Phoebe said, knowing her sister both kids must have been grounded for weeks.  
  
"Well... she went crazy about misusing magic and grounded us... but at the moment we both were so carried away in our little fight that a spell, we're not really sure about who cast it, hit her and transformed her into a puppet."  
  
Now the sister was running into hysterics, barely holding herself in the table of the book. Chris joined her laughs for a moment, but they both finally relented.  
  
"Gosh! Surely it went awkward after that..." Phoebe said when she was able to speak again.  
  
"You can't imagine" the kid answered, remembering the moment with a shudder.  
  
Wondering if he was going to fall for it, Phoebe went on.  
  
"And aren't you worried for her?"  
  
For half a second, Chris nearly answered the question straight away. But being the sarcastic mind of the family had got him fast reaction skills.  
  
"Worried about who? My mother? Why?" he put his more innocent smile.  
  
"Sorry... I just changed the subject, I meant Piper." Answered the empath returning the innocent gesture.  
  
"Piper? The Charmed One?" Chris' smile grew so wide and full of proud that if the sister had had any doubts about who he really was, they would have vanished in that very moment. "No way... Nothing can beat the Charmed Ones... nothing can beat her."  
  
"You look pretty sure."  
  
"Of course I am... you're a legend... you've faced everything and you've won. The day something beats Piper Halliwell is the day sky will turn pink and the rain will pour upside down."  
  
Phoebe smiled, this Chris surely was different from the one they knew.

For a start, their Chris would be hysterical, flipping through the Book of Shadows like mad and bossing them around. He'd be sure that every single evil thing that could happen was, in fact, hundreds of times better than what was really going to happen. This one was more confident in them, and he worshiped Piper.  
  
"Thank gods he's stopped crying..." muttered the teen, talking about Wyatt who had just eased the tantrum.  
  
Leo was soothing him, and the kid was falling asleep. The angel looked at the sisters a little defeated, it hadn't worked.  
  
"We'll think of something else, Leo... It was a good idea..." Paige tried to sound sure, but she was not. "We'll think of something..."  
  
Even if she was trying to have her life outside magic with the part time jobs, a part of her was reassured of knowing that she could rely on her powers. But now they were working weird, and that was not so reassuring.  
  
"I have and idea..." all of them turned to Chris who was smiling kind of mischievously.  
  
"What idea?" asked Leo.  
  
"Well... there's this little game I used to play with my brother when we were kids..."  
  
A new awkward moment and silent stares between the sisters and Leo, luckily Chris didn't noticed any of them.  
  
"What game?"  
  
Chris told them which game.  
  
Phoebe couldn't help but noticing how the teen looked at his father face, as if daring him to say something against the plan. The look wanted too much to be a dare, but in fact it looked more like a 'kid-looking-for-approval' stare trying to disguise itself like a glare. The kid caught her looking at him looking at Leo and quickly changed his face into a cocky smile.  
  
"You played that with your brother?" Leo looked at him, a thin smirk in his face.  
  
"Well... more like... I played that to my brother." He answered. "Until he caught me."  
  
"And then?" asked Phoebe.  
  
Chris raised an eyebrow, smiling widely. "What do you think was the 'Pink Cow and Yellow Chicken' incident about?"  
  
Phoebe scarcely suppressed a laugh. "I think that's worth trying..." she said, looking at Leo and her sister.  
  
"Yes... it could be... interesting" Leo couldn't help but to be amused by it. Surely he would have to do something in the future, but right now he was just wondering how tricky raising a magic child could be. He had also realized how much he longed to be there to find out.  
  
"But won't the spell go wrong?" Paige asked. "With all the things that have been happening lately... it's a little risky. What if you just change again?"  
  
Chris shook his head.  
  
"I don't think so..." he answered. "Whatever is happening to your magic must be somehow connected with something you've done... some spell."  
  
"How do you know that? I mean, it could be some kind of spell or magic on the house... couldn't it?" Argued the youngest Halliwell.  
  
The teen shook his head again.  
  
"No way, the effects you're mentioning... It looks like a whirlpool effect to me." He saw the stares of his family and explained himself, it was weird, thought. Aunt Paige had explained this to them just a week ago. "You see, the er... how was it? The thaumaturgical effect (T1T2-LM2/) of a spell that have gone wrong (T1(T2-LM2/)/T2) interferes usually with those carachteristics signatures of the source of power that have originated it. It's wave ondulates for the departing point (0,0) forming a continuum quantum space (x$/yrt) that would whirl it's spirals, creating chaos between the origin s (y) and affecting it's target (z) as much as the center of it's whirl, which can be one or many (u,v,w). The basics of the equation mixed with Anastains Teorema of the 'thaumatirgical relativity' (TH/2(87/&¬9)) would, nevertheless, be compensated by Obreus magical Law of Parthins. But it seems that the whirl ran and inversed patter on itself (u-u,v-v,w-w)" so the basical law it's not aplied on it's origins (0,0)"

For some seconds all the adults in the room squinted a little while their minds tried to find some empty space in the brain to put all the information. Eventually they gave up.  
  
"I see." Lied both sisters.  
  
"I don't" said Leo. "But if you say you can find Piper, I believe you. Now... can we proceed?"  
  
Chris face light up a little at the words, but he quickly faded it into a cool stare.  
  
"Sure... let's sit."  
  
Leo sat down and Chris approached him, sitting next to his father in the floor and facing Wyatt who had just fell asleep.  
  
"Wyatt, can you hear me?" the kid stirred, not deeply asleep but not awake.  
  
Chris bit his lip, it had been a while since he last tried to do this.  
  
_"Spirit that sleeps in morpheus hands,  
mind that stays in foreigner lands,  
Sleep well, but heed the words I cast,  
For from now my will on you will last".  
_  
Chris hesitated a little, cursing himself for not thinking of this before. Finally he continued.  
  
_"You must find Piper, she is in the black,  
Use your powers to bring her back."  
_  
The last bit was pretty lame, but it should work.  
  
Wyatt stirred again, his eyes half open but his stare somehow lost.  
  
"This is mean..." said Leo, earning a glare from Chris. Oblivious to it, he continued. "But clever nevertheless. And I'm sure pretty funny... I can't believe you did that to your own brother."  
  
Unbalanced at his father admitting that this was funny Chris couldn't stop a new cocky smile.  
  
"Don't feel so sorry for my brother, he managed a good revenge..." Then he remembered who he was talking to, scowled, and focused on the main theme." It takes a few seconds to process the information, but... here it goes."  
  
Wyatt's eyes snapped open and some orbs appeared in the middle of the room. Hastily, Paige placed the protection stones around the glows and, after a few seconds, Piper appeared. The witch looked at them, startled.  
  
"Hey, girls, where were you?"  
  
"Piper?" asked Paige.  
  
"Of course I'm Piper, who else would I be? And why is Wyatt up at this hours?" she took a step to her son, but the force field created by the stones stopped her ."What the hell are these things doing on the floor? Paige, will you please take them off so I can go and put my son in bed, where he should be?"  
  
Paige found herself already moving to the stones when Phoebe's yell stopped her.  
  
"Paige, no! That's not Piper..." the empath said. "I can feel it, and it's lying."  
  
The younger Halliwell looked at her oldest sister who scowled at Phoebe.  
  
"Very clever, witch... I should have thought that your empathy would discover me..."  
  
"Not that clever, SoulShadow, or I would have discovered all this earlier."  
  
The demon with Piper face snickered.  
  
"What can I say... I'm a smart demon."  
  
"You're a dead demon if you don't leave my sister."  
  
Piper laughed.  
"Correction, I'm a dead demon IF I leave your sister." She looked around and saw Chris. "Hey, it's the witty kid again... What do you say, young man, do you want me to leave her?"  
  
"Would you if I say so?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then go to hell."  
  
"That's not the way to talk to your mother, young man."  
  
Chris glare became hastily a face of horror. That was not right. That was in fact very wrong. Out of panic, the kid plastered a new brand wide smile in his face and looked around to discover that, all of a sudden, his family was very interested in the study of the walls of the attic, or in Paige's case of her own boots.

Sooo wrong.  
  
"What? Didn't you know that they knew?" gloated Piper.  
  
And there was a new silent.  
  
It was not a normal silence created by the absence of an answer, but a hush compounded by words unspoken. Like the essence of the anti-sound. The words were there, but as no one had ushered them, they reminded hanging in the air, slightly surprised for the lack of sound.

"Oops!, may I suspect that you have not yet told him that you knew?" Piper's face was twisted and her smirk unpleasant.  
  
The kid faced his family again, Phoebe was looking at him with a uneasy smile.  
  
"We meant to tell you... after all this was settled."  
  
"Ah...er... ah... uh... um... I... er..." That was not on the top lists of the best answers in the history of magic.  
  
Chris exhaled, trying to control the panic rising in him... although he wasn't able to explain what he was feeling, merely because he was starting to find hard to remember some past experience that could be categorized as weirder than this.

The main problem was that he wanted Wyatt with him, with his brother around everything seemed far easier. Everything seemed to work right. And if it didn't, having the almighty twice blessed backing you up was always useful. He was starting to feel lost, and that wasn't feeling he was used to. Plus the fact that his current family and adult reference were looking at him as something picked out of a very bad Twilight Zone episode was not helping.  
  
The demon, by the way, was still talking to him.  
  
"And did your family told you that you became a damn six years old?"  
  
Chris straightened up.  
  
"In fact, yes, they did..."  
  
"Really? Did they told you that you was such a useless cry baby?"  
  
"No... but Wyatt used to tell me that..."  
  
"Wyatt? That's interesting..." the demon smiled with his mother lips, but whatever he was thinking, the smile never got to the eyes. "Do you and him go along together in the future? Do you like him? Is he you role model?"  
  
Now it was Chris' time to snort.  
  
"Who? Wyatt? No way, his but a bigheaded, annoying moron with an ego the size of a little galaxy and nearly half as brains as a retarded mice."  
  
Leo and Paige stared at him half stunned, but Phoebe had grown up being the youngest of three sisters, she knew enough about teenage ages to be able to translate that into what he really meant. 

She also was able to sense where the conversation was heading, and that was not something she wanted to discuss right now.  
  
"Enough!" she exclaimed before the thing inside her sister said something else. "Now we have to bring our Chris back so we can..."  
  
"Ask them why you are here..." the demon cut her off, talking to Chris.  
  
"I said enough!" she repeated, glancing over at her sister for some help.  
  
"Ask them about the future... ask about Wyatt... Ask about..."  
  
But the last part of the sentence got lost when someone pulled him by the shirt and made him orb away. He appeared in his mother's room and spinned around.  
  
"What was she talking about, aunt...?" he stopped at mid sentence. "... Leo?"  
  
"Aunt Leo? I must have changed a lot in your time if now I'm an aunt..." He jested, placing Wyatt in the bed again.  
  
Chris remained silent, not sure about how should he behave around a joking Leo. In the future, when he was around, Leo had tried to be fatherly and all that stuff with him, but somehow he just had been able to be scarcely appropriate and a little out of place.  
  
Once Wyatt was in the bed and the protection stones had been checked to be in it's place, his father sat in the bed in front of him.

"So you're my son." He asked. It wasn't the greatest way to start the conversation, but in fact there was probably no easy way to do it.

"Yes."

The elder nodded, trying to maintain some composure while his mind was on the line of the '_Oh my god oh my god oh my god _I-beat-the-crap-out-of-him-this-morning_ oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god and _he's-a-neurotic_ oh my god oh my god _no-wonder-why-he-is-a-neurotic-if-his-father-just-goes-and-beats-him_ oh my god oh my god oh my god _he-is-looking-I-should-say-something'.

"Uh..." said Leo. And his mind said _Gosh, you're sooo clever... now try with 'Er..'_.

"Er..." said Chris, annoyed at himself for being nervious.

Uneasy, Leo looked around, thinking on something to say until his eyes set on the wedding photo, in the bedside table. That carried a thought into his overwhelmed mind. "Are you worried about Piper?"  
  
Chirs cocked his head, startled by the sudden question, then simply shook it.  
  
"I just told Phoebe, I'm not worried about her... I know she'll be alright."  
  
Leo saw too the pride in the kid words, the confidence in his eyes.  
"Yes... I know what you mean..." he agreed "I will never stop wondering how they work everything out always... the power of the Charmed Ones plus their stubbornness... that's a threat."  
  
Chris agreed and smirked.  
  
"In fact I was more in the lines of the fact that I'm not born yet, so if something were to happen to her I wouldn't be here."  
  
Leo stared at Chris with a sudden realization.

To get a son you must... invert some time an effort into the... er... previews of the mmm... pregnancy. Just to put it easy. A part of him smiled devishly for a second, until he forced himself to stop thinking with that part and keep using the brains above.

For a start, he and Piper were not in that kind of relationship anymore. They weren't even in a 'tea and cookies' relationship either.

And it did not looked as if they were going to get back to that (the coffee) any time soon.  
  
"When will you be born?" he asked.  
  
"What day is it?"  
  
He told him.  
  
Chris' smiled.  
  
"I can't tell you, that would be messing with the future even more... and gods knows that when my future me discovers what you know, he'll work a way to kill me."  
  
"I don't think so." Leo said, because that was what you said in these situations.  
  
Chris raised an eyebrow at him and Leo smiled too.  
"Ok, you're going to be really pissed, are you?" his father asked, still smiling.  
  
"You can bet on that."  
  
"Well is there something I can do to ease it? Some secret way to deal with you that I'll discover in the future?"  
  
And that broke the moment, because it was easy to forget you were talking with the same Leo once he started talking back and he was even fun.

But sooner or later you'd remember that he was Leo. 

And you'd remember all the letters, and all those times when he'd pick Wyatt up there to see the elders. Up there were you were not allowed for you were not a full whitelighter or a twice blessed.

And you'd remember the long silence everytime you two got stored in a room, alone. The awkward feeling of not having anything to say, anything to share. The constant gap next to your mother where there should have been your father, in every important event in your life.

The prick in your heart when he was at Wyatt's.

Leo would never forget their birthdays, and he would ever remember to have a gift and a sorry note for Chris's. But he would be there in Wyatt's.  
  
It wasn't that his father doesn't loved him, by there were more important matters.  
  
"You have a secret way to deal with those things in th future." Chris heard himself muttering.  
  
Hi father stared at him, expecting.  
  
"You don't deal with it."  
  
And as Leo fully coped with Chris's resentful voice, golden light surrounded the kid and he yelled, half in surprise half in fear.  
  
The elder got up to reach him, but the spinning golden glow worked as a shield, impeding him to go anywhere near the kid. It don't lasted, however, and soon the glow disappeared leaving in it's place a fully grown Chris that stumbled and barely kept his balance.  
  
"Chris?" asked Leo, playing again Mr. Obvious role.  
  
The young man looked at him and retreated with a glimpse of fear, clutching a limp arm over his chest. Wyatt stirring in the cradle caught his attention, though, and the half whitelighter cursed, throwing himself to the kid. So much for trying to keep him save.  
  
"I told you it won't work" complained Phoebe. "That was a Power of Three spell, not a Power of Two And A Snickering Demon spell".  
  
Paige grunted, at least it had ben worth the try.  
  
Somewhere, downstairs, they heard the sound of something cracking,

----OOOO----

And that's been all for today... I know, that was a mean cliffhanger... I would give you more cookies but someone just stole al the leftovers.

_kid Crhis grins and sneaks to the closest door _

Anyway... I hope you'd enjoyed it.


	10. So you're not going to kill me?

It's been an awful delay and I'm sorry, nevertheless I think I can solve that...

Waving the my hand in a very jedi like movement and reciting...

For the time have long been lost,

That this fic should have been post,

Please forgive me the delay,

And send the shame far away.

Now forget, lets make a pact,

Make your mind erase the fact,

That it's been far out of date,

Since I promised an update.

So my shame I can now heal,

I'll tell you I'm sorry and I will

Try to update the next one soon,

A fact as right as the moon.

Now you all are very convinced that there's not been such a delay and you still like me and my cookies... (desperate mad grimace while grabbing a sharpened pencil).

Thanks for you patience and our lovely reviews!!

**Jennie:** Well, he is back to normality again... at least for now. And don't worry for the reviews as far as people reads the fic ad like it I'm happy (reviews are good just for my ego and it's already big enough and growing). I'm glad you liked the chapter .

**Kilikapele:** XD thank you very much. I love when people tells me that they were waiting for the update (TT although it makes me feel guilty when I can update sooner).

**Queen of the Elven City:** Cracking like someone jumping trashing around a room. Let's say a falling flower pot or something like that. Thanks

**IcantthinkofaFnick:** Hi!! I'm trying to express what I think Chris must feel, the whole I'm living Leo now but I should be hating him, so I'm pretty confused... I'm happy you like the result. And yep, I'm still reading your storys although I have to find time and read the one after Time spend in Darkness, the rest are all checked and loved. I wish I could write the dialogs you write U

**Buffgirl:** Thanks!!

**Egokreep: **I'm sorry you didn't finished the story, I'm trying to go on explaining things when it's the right time.

**Gossy707**: XDD thaaanks!! Yep, as I always say Poor Chris is the main idea. Although I think that I'll feel sorry for Leo too in some chapters... The big problem is that I like all the Chris' so I'd like to keep writing with all of them. Sighs... U

**Christine Marquez: **Thanks!

**terra fea: **Here's the update and your cookie (a big one).

**allaboutelephants22:** I've passed you kiss to kid Chris, he liked it although was a little confsed because I just passed it alter ranking for a while about why he shouldn0t be stealing cookies... Sorry for the delay and thanks for the review

**Sweet-Charmed-Angle: **Thanks.

And here we go with the chapter... it's not a very dinamic one, but I wanted to explain certain thinks. 

---OOO---

"Wyatt, here!" Leo shouted as Chris jumped to grab him. The kid orbed to the elder who tried to reason with Chris. "Listen to me, we..."  
  
But Chris had no time for that.  
  
"Leo, you don't understand! He's in danger, and you can't..."  
  
"Yes, we can, look-"  
  
Chris shook his head, angrily.  
  
"No! Look, I knew this would happen... but you can't protect him  
because there's a d..."  
  
"We know..."  
  
"No you don't, this demon..."  
  
"We know about the SoulShadow!!" Leo yelled, finally.  
  
Chris stopped in his tracks. "You do?"  
  
"Yes we do, and we're working on it."  
  
The half whitelighter gaped at him. "You're working on it?"  
  
"Yes"  
  
"Oh..."

Chris looked slightly crestfallen; he had been all prepared for a fight to make them understand. He'd planned a thousand ways to explain it, replayed the conversation in his head again and again, thinking how to reply to their arguments. Building himself up for a long fight. And now they already knew?

That was not cool.

And he was not thinking straight.

"Chris, are you...?" Leo began, but Chris couldn't hear the end of it for his vision started to spin slowly and his knees collapsed.

Darkness began to wrap it's fingers around his mind and Chris felt himself fall to the floor. It was a long fall, as if played in slow motion, until something grabbed him by the waist and pulled him up.

The next thing the half white lighter was aware of was that he was lying in the bed.  
  
"Shhh..." Someone whispered next to him. "You can hold on, okay? Hold on. I'm here. You can hold on, okay? I'm going to heal, but you have to stay awake"  
  
Chris blinked, confused. Stay awake? Why?

_Because you're drifting into unconsciousness and he is healing you... you'd have a fight earlier, remember? And I don't remember you having too much sleep lately._ The future witch grunted at his mind lecturing him. _By the way, you'd have a fight with Leo, and It sounds like he is the one healing you._

It sounded like Leo's voice.  
  
It was Leo's voice.  
  
It was Leo.

Then why wasn't he knocking the sense out of him instead of whispering those freaking comforting words?  
  
Oh, god... he was going to die.  
  
That's why the elder was being nice, because he was going to die.  
  
A warm feeling crossed his body and the shadows retreated.  
  
Maybe not dead. Maybe not yet.  
  
Not until Wyatt was safe.  
  
"Wyatt..." he whispered, the pain had released him but he still felt weak.  
  
"He is here... he is okay... just don't worry."

Don't worry? Easy to say.  
  
"You're not going to kill me, then?"  
  
"No, probably not..." Leo answered, then added to himself: _But the day you're old enough someone is going to get grounded for a loooong time for kidnapping your brother._

The elder smirked.  
  
"Sorry..." Chris scolded himself for that, but his mouth wasn't acting according to his brain. The second wanted to make some witty remark to scold Leo away ( the man was too much close for his taste ), but the former insisted on lame words and stupid questions.  
  
"Just don't worry and try to relax..." the elder said.

Again.

Don't worry? Don't worry? He'd kidnapped Wyatt!!  
  
For crying out loud, the man had been for months turning his life into hell for the Valkryeis issue (he was surrounded with beautiful, half naked women and yet had the guts to complain), but Chris kidnaps his offspring and it's a big '_Don't worry_'?  
  
His family was absolutely demented... and he was losing it again.

He was feeling so tired... he just wanted a hot bath and a comfy bed. Not an option right now, though.

Slowly, Chris managed to focus come back again to reality.  
  
Leo was saying something and he asked the elder to repeat it.  
  
"I was saying that you had your reasons to take Wyatt away, and that... well... you see.. maybe I shouldn't have..."  
  
Chris head snapped up. His father was trying to apologize? To him?  
  
Wow.  
  
He'd always had the feeling that it would take a genie's wish to have Leo apologizing to him without a letter.  
  
"... and I suppose that you were right not telling us... because we wouldn't have listened... not with everything what's happened lately..."  
  
Chris sighed, the man was finding it hard to say the words, was he?  
  
"... but nevertheless what happened before, when I found you... well, you see, I was worried and... er..."  
  
Well, definitely, Leo was apologizing. Or proposing commitment. Which would turn this in the most awkward moment in his life. Even worse than that with the killer Teddy Bears.  
  
"... so all in all, I wanted to say you that... well..."  
  
Chris raised head again, now was it... he was going to say it.  
  
The elder took a deep breath." ... look, I'm so..."  
  
He shut up when the door swung open.  
  
"What happened??!!??" Phoebe rushed into the room to find Chris in the bed, glaring daggers at her, and Leo sitting next to him. "We heard a crack and... Is this Chris?"  
  
"No, I'm Snowhite..." he answered, pushing himself up straight. "And I'd like to know what the hell am I doing here, because the last time I checked I was in a freaking hut in the middle of a freaking forest surrounded by seven dwarves!"  
  
Phoebe raised her arms in surrender.

"Chill, boy... There's no need to get mad... " She gave a second thought to the statement and added. "Not yet at least..."  
  
Chris looked at her with a grimace, she didn't looked ready to kill him either.  
  
"What are you talking about, Phoebe? And try to explain it in short words, cause my head is still spinning."

"Short? Okay, lets say it in short words... No Time For It Now. She now. You later."  
  
"She?"  
  
"Piper..."  
  
Oh... oh oh oh... she was going to skin him very slowly and then boil the rests.  
  
"What happens with her?"  
  
"She's kind of... possessed by the demon... if you know what I mean..."  
  
Chris nodded.  
"Yeah, I know what you mean. You see, the SoulShadow gets into a human body and kind of controls it's mind without the guest being aware of..."

The empath rolled her eyes.  
"Yes yes yes... we've read it in the book... it have her brain bugged and influences her and bla bla bla... is it?" she said with a smug face. "We can read the book too, you know?"  
  
"Indeed, you can." he answered with a grin "Who'd thought so..."  
  
Phoebe scowled at him but said nothing for a part of her brain was screaming at her something in the lines of _Ooooh!! He's sooo cute when he's being witty, You have such a handsome and cute nephew... Oh My God, you didn't hit on him, Did You? Did you?... Oh, I'm a perverted...  
_  
"Nevertheless, she's acting weird..."  
Leo's words returned her to reality.

"Well, she's more or less possessed, you know?" remarked Chris, raising an eyebrow. "I suspect she won't be making cookies."  
  
"I didn't mean that..." protested the elder.  
  
"I know, I know... " Relented Chris. "But the SoulShadow does change people, and it's worse than a common demon because normal empath can't sense it, and if you're not looking accurate or if it isn't in a rush for something, it can have you fooled for weeks..." Chris eyes darkened, half lost in a memory. "... and people don't even know they had something inside once it leaves the guest. It's so easy to blame a weird behavior on a bad day that you'll never know what happens..."

"It looks like if you've studied this demon for a long time... did you know that this was going to happen?"  
  
And there was again suspect in Leo's voice.  
  
"No, I didn't. I was following a lead in the underground... and I heard a rumor that there was a SoulShadow plotting against the Charmed Ones."  
  
"And how come that you know so much about it?" insisted the elder.  
  
Chris sighed, too tired to start an argument with them right now, or even to lie.  
  
"Because it attacked, in the future..." it wasn't as if he was putting the future in danger, after all none of them were alive when it happened.  
  
"It attacked the Charmed Ones?" asked Leo.  
  
Chris smirked humorlessly.

"No, it attacked me and some... let's says friends..."  
  
Phoebe sat next to him.  
  
"So you have friends in the future? Who'd thought so..."  
  
"Had." Said the young man.  
  
"What?" asked the witch, not fully understanding him.  
  
"I had friends in the future." He said, his voice was rough.  
  
The silence that followed that statement would have beaten all the last ones in thickness and awkwardness.  
  
"Sorry,... I didn't... I didn't meant to..."  
  
Chris shook his head.  
"Don't worry about that, ok? You didn't know..." and I shouldn't have told.  
  
"Was it Wyatt?"  
  
"Sorry?" Chris turned to Leo, startled. The elder had asked the question with  
an emotionless voice but his eyes were burning.

"Did Wyatt... have something to o with your friends... death? Where they opposing him or something like that? A resistance?"

The thought of a real resistance against Wyatt nearly made Chris laugh, but the young man stopped himself. It was not funny at all.

"I can't tell you." He didn't wanted to talk about this, not now, not never.  
  
"Because of future consequences?" asked the angel. "Or because you don't want us to know what he's capable of?"  
  
That hurt. That hurt a lot. Basically because it was true.  
  
"You don't have to know that." He spat.  
  
"I'm his father, I deserve to know..."  
  
"You don't deserve a shit, Leo..." Chris said, cutting him off so harshly that Phoebe winced. "Seventy two hours ago you didn't even know about this, and the truth is that you should've never known."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Chris hesitated.  
_Because that won't happen, because I'm here to stop it, to give us an opportunity. I want the future to be brand and new, I'm sick of people dying. I wanna see my cousins growing up and I want to complain about high school and homework. I want to have dreams. _

_I'm fed up with being afraid, and I'm fed up of seeing people living in fear. Fear of some megalomaniac freak of power that happened to be the center of my live. My fucking hero.  
  
I'm sick of wake up at dawn and ask myself who'll die today. Who will he kill?  
  
And I'm sick of knowing it won't be me.  
  
And once I've created this shining future, mine won't exist anywhere but in my mind and if one day I can forget, even if it is for just one second, then maybe I could play at ignoring it even happened.  
_  
"Because it would've been better that way." Chris said, his voice more harsh than what he'd liked.  
  
He will find a way to make them forget. He will. After all, he'd found a way to be conceived, hadn't he?  
  
Phoebe felt that Chris was not ready to talk about that, and they really had no time anyway, but Leo seemed unaware of that, so she interrupted the conversation before it went on.  
  
"What you said about the demon..." she asked, elbowing the elder to shut him up. " about it changing people moods and all that stuff. I'm not sure that's the case with Piper..."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, for an instance what she did, when possessed.. I don't thing real Piper would have done it, not even with a thousand SoulShadows messing in his emotions."  
  
The half whitelighter frowned.  
  
"What did she do?"  
  
The elder Looked at her (Look-at-what-you've-done-now!!) and the empath hesitated, that was clearly not the moment to discuss their little magical skid.  
  
"She... she put Wyatt in danger... on purpose..."  
  
"What? Really?" Chris face darkened with worry. "Holy shit!"  
  
"No good?" she asked.  
  
The young man didn't answered but covered his face with his hands and kept cursing.  
  
And that was weird, thought Phoebe, because teen Chris would have shrugged. After all, _the day something beats Piper Halliwell the sky will turn pink and the rain will pour upside down_.  
  
On the other hand, their Chris had never been all that confident in the Charmed Ones skills.

"Er... Chris?" Leo crossed sights with the empath, both where thinking in the same lines. "What happens?"  
  
The half witch sighed deeply, regaining some control.  
  
"She's possessed." He stated.  
  
"Well, yeah we know that, but..."  
  
"No, no no no no... you don't understand. The SoulShadow has fully possessed her. Not just bugged her brain, but now it have full control over her actions, she's not even conscious now... it's more like a typical possession." The young witch cursed with some very intense words. "That's stupid because after some minutes in a full possession the demon loses contact with the guest and it's memories or general behaviours, so there's really no way to keep faking be someone else. And it should now that if you were aware of someone in the family being possessed, it wouldn't have a chance to get near Wyatt..."  
  
"Then why-?"  
  
Chris answered before Leo had finished the question.  
"Because then it would have access to all her powers without the restrictions of her will, but that would mean giving away it's cover. I thought it wouldn't do something that stupid, in my time it was more...  
subtle..."  
  
There was another _sight-crossing_.  
  
"She... It may have... need them... " said Phoebe.  
  
"Why?" asked Chris, suspiciously.  
  
Sight-crossing.  
To keep away the demon she'd submitted ordered to kill you.  
That was not the best way to avoid certain subjects.  
  
Hesitation.  
  
"A demon attacked." Leo half lied at least.  
  
Chris nodded, it didn't made much sense, but he was really tired so if Leo had said a giant turtle carrying four pink bespectacled elephants had entered the room dancing can-can he'd believed him.  
  
On the other hand...  
  
"But even with Piper's powers there's no way it can hurt or even touch Wyatt. " He cursed his own treacherous mind, unable to drop a subject. "He would know and he would protect himself... probably..."  
  
"Probably?" Phoebe raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Well, I wasn't sure... that's why I had to take him away."  
  
The empath melted a little at Chris's hopeless voice. And he was actually pouting. His nephew was cuuuute... Focus, she had to focus. Right now.  
  
"Whatever... we have to free her right now!" the young man massaged his temples, exasperated.  
  
"That was the plan, Chris. We were working on it before you... regained your consciousness." She tried to calm him, then noticed his suddenly paleness and froze. "What happens? Is she in danger?"  
  
"No!... Yes... Er... " The half witch cursed again and got up in a rush. "She is in danger... She..."  
  
And then, without finishing the explanation started pacing, muttering to himself something on the lines of "shitshitshitshitshitshit".  
  
Leo looked at Phoebe who shrugged.

"Chris, you're not making any sense at all." The empath stated.  
  
The half whitelighter stopped with a decision and turned to Leo.

"She's not going to get hurt, probably, for the demon needs her... but the stress of carrying a fully possession... you must understand, she will not give up her mind, she will fight for it even if she's not fully aware of what happens around."  
  
"And that's bad because...?" asked the elder. Of course Piper will be fighting the demon.  
  
"Because... the stress... her body, something in her body may... give up..."  
  
"She is in danger of a heart attack?" Leo's eyes grew wide.  
  
Some tiny subconscious part of Chris stomped it's metaphorical head into a metaphorical wall of his subconscious. As a result, his real head started to hurt.  
  
"What? No..." Chris took a deep breath. "She may not be in danger Leo,  
but... someone... inside her is."  
  
Phoebe gasped next to him and cursed mildly. Leo simply frowned.  
  
"Well, of course... but I don't understand how does it matters..."  
  
Chris froze. "I beg your pardon? Of course it matters!"  
  
"No, I mean... if the demon inside Piper is in danger what should we care...?"  
  
The subconscious tiny part of Chris drew a sledgehammer and proceeded to hit it's tiny head.  
  
The elder must had felt something in the young man stunned face and mentally replayed the last minute of conversation.  
  
He tried to sit down, then realized that he was already sitting on the bed and tried to get up, both movements melted in at the same time in the elder overloaded mind and Leo found himself landing in the floor with a muffled thud.  
  
"Piper is pregnant." It wasn't a question.  
Piper was pregnant.  
Of him? Well, sure it was his son. It had to be Chris and the kid was half whitelighter.

Unless she'd known another angel in the last months.  
  
Or maybe an elder.  
Oh man, he knew that Gideon suddenly interest in his family wasn't for free. Oh, the moment he'd finished with all this he would go to the magic school and...  
  
Chris subconscious tiny part orbed from it's own head to Leo's and slammed the sledgehammer into the elder's subconscious tiny part metaphorical head.  
  
The elder focused.  
  
Phoebe saw Leo's face came back to reality and felt slightly bad for him. But just slightly. Her sister was going to have a new baby.  
Chris!!  
Did she know that already?  
  
How was she supposed to tell her who Chris was?  
  
The half whitelighter, by the way, had turned his back to them and was slowly counting to one hundred. That was all the time he was going to give them to get used to the news of a newcomer.

After all, Phoebe would accept it in half that time, and Leo never really got over it in his time, so there was no sense in giving them more time.  
  
...97...98...99...  
  
"And one-hundred..." he turned again "ok, guys, I know you're all surprised and that but..." his voice trailed off as he saw the big smile in Leo's face. "But... but... but we have to... find Piper  
and... er... free her of the demon..." Focus focus focus damn it, focus! " because... because of the..."  
  
"Baby?" the elder finished for him still smiling.  
  
"Yes... the baby..."  
  
"My daughter..."  
  
"Or your son!!"  
  
"Yes, of course, or my son..." for one second Leo was highly tempted to taunt Chris with names, but this was not the moment. "Any ideas of how we're supposed to do that?"  
  
The half witch blinked again at the elder's smile, lost in thoughts.  
  
_"But you love her. And she loves you." had said Phoebe.  
"I'm afraid that's not enough." _

And that had been a good answer. The kind of answer that Chris was willing to accept. The reaction he'd always thought that would fit.  
  
But Leo had that smile. Even worried for Piper, he was smiling.  
Chris tried to focus again, he'd deal with Leo and all the baby stuff later.

On a second thought, he'd rather not deal with it ever.  
  
"Yes... yes... there's ways to fight it, of course..." Chris said finally, packing everything else in the bottom of his mind.. "There's a power of three spell, that we can't do since she won't be willing to cast it... but there's a potion too... and this..." he extracted a little box of his pocket and held it up to show them.  
  
"What is it?" asked Phoebe inspecting it. "There's some symbols engraved..."  
  
"It's a box, a magical box..." Chris explained. "I bought it just a little while ago, that's why I left the safe area..."  
  
"Safe area?" Phoebe wanted to know.  
  
"Where you couldn't find me."  
  
"And where..."  
  
"Not now, Phoebe, please..."  
Se agreed with a nod.  
  
Leo, who hadn't mentioned a thing about the safe area, approached half witch and took the box carefully.  
"It's very old." He stated. "And the engraving seems to be some kind of babilonic. It's a soul box, is it? You plan to put the demon in a soul box... that's clever."  
  
Chris glared at his father. It was his plan, so he'd liked to explain it by himself, thank you very much.  
"Yes... and it's expensive too, so if you don't mind..." he snapped, snatching the thing back. "Now, the main plan was to..."  
  
"Where did you get the money to pay it?" Phoebe cut him off.  
  
"Wh... What?"  
  
"Yeah, if it's expensive how did you paid it?" agreed Leo.  
  
"I sold something..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Something... something I... Oh, screw it the both of you!!!. Can you please please please focus?? I mean, Piper is lost and pregnant and you two keep interrupting me every two words with silly things!! Now, we have to find Piper..."  
  
Leo opened his mouth to say something but Chris raised a threatening finger and continued.  
  
"... cast a spell to force the demon to leave her body... now it would be tricky for the moment the SoulShadow leaves a body, it jumps nearly immediately into another, so we have to throw the potion pretty fast. It will confuse him long enough to give the Charmed Ones time to cast  
a second spell that will draw it to the box."  
  
He stopped to breath and added. "Is that clear?"  
  
"Crystal." Said Phoebe and mentally added. _He is cute... but have a hell of a character... just like Piper, which would be lovely if not for the fact that he is having all this character directed at me... now it's merely annoying and turns him into a little neurotic jerk under stress... just like his mother._  
  
Leo tried to say something but Chris is cut him off. Again.  
  
"No way, Leo... whatever it is, I don't care, ok? I'm so not going to stand you playing the all knowingly and all superior elder. This is urgent and I really couldn't care less on how much you don't trust me, ok? Save it for later, because this demon can't be contained by no kind of force field or stones or whatever so if Piper comes back and we're not ready I'm not sure of what will happen."  
  
Leo glared at him, feeling for first time a rush of annoyance at his son (instead of a rush of annoyance at Chris the half whitelighter of the future).  
  
"What I was going to say, you obnoxious smart ass, is that Piper is already here. She's in the attic contained by the stones... which is not working, for what you've said."  
  
Chris paled, whirled around and ran upstairs.  
  
That left Leo, Phoebe and Wyatt in the bedroom.  
  
"So much for the almighty cold headed boy..." muttered the elder. Then turned to the witch. "Do you want me orbing you upstairs."  
  
The empath cocked her head, doubtfully.  
  
"Are you sure? This demon could infect me... shouldn't I stay here?"  
  
"Well, Phoebe, no offence meant but for what I know you could be the aforesaid demon, so I''m not leaving you alone with Wyatt."  
  
She sighed.  
  
"You have a point there."  
  
And the two of them orbed back to the attic.

* * *

Done... for now. I hop you liked it.


	11. To be possessed or not to be possessed

Hi there!!!

First, my eternal thanks to As Always for she keeps my fic in it's tracks.

Second, a very big ovation to my reviwers. I do really read and re-read you reviews... and when I can't write or I don't find the way to go on with the story, I read 'em again... Flattering is wonderful for a writer's block. My point is that I really appreciated your reviews although I can answer them one per one now (that's another thing that i love to do... U) because it's late and tomorrow I have to wake up soon and still have lots of things to do but I wan't to post this now because it's unfair to keep ypu waiting. I really don't want to be rude and I'll try to answer both sets of reviews in the next chapter.

Why I'm taking all this time in updating? I'm living in my grandma's home this days for she is sick, and although I can type the story in my laptop I can't send it to my beta or post it as easy as before.

By the way, some of you said that the last two chapters were a l little caothic... I know and I'm sorry, my own mind wasn't really stright at that moment.

Ok, stop the babbling, start the fic.

By the way, you all will kill me at the end of this chapter... (and **Icantthinkofanick**, you can't go and read it!! You have to wait... XD sorry, couldn't resist it, you can go and read if you want, although I pretty recommend you to wait.)

Now, the fic...

_Chris paled, whirled around and ran upstairs. _

_That left Leo, Phoebe and Wyatt in the bedroom. _

_"So much for the almighty cold headed boy..." muttered the elder. Then turned to the witch. "Do you want me orbing you upstairs." _

_The empath cocked her head, doubtfully. _

_"Are you sure? This demon could infect me... shouldn't I stay here?" _

_"Well, Phoebe, no offence meant but for what I know you could be the aforesaid demon, so I''m not leaving you alone with Wyatt." _

_She sighed. _

"_You have a point there." _

_And the two of them orbed back to the attic._

Leo and Phoebe orbed in to see a furious Paige yelling lots of highly censored words to Chris who was, unsuccessfully, trying to explain her why he'd trapped her inside a protection stone circle.

The moment they were fully materialized there, the ranting turned in their direction.

"Phoebe, can you tell to our demented whitelighter that I'm not possessed?"   
The middle sister grimaced at her.

"See hon? The fact is that if you were possessed, that's exactly what you'd said... although it really doesn't matter if you're being honest or not."

The empath cocked her head, thoughtfully, and looked from her younger sister to her older. Finally she turned to Chris who had picked up a new set of protection stones from the shelf.

"Hey, I know you wouldn't trust me very much right now, but if she was really possessed, I would be sensing something... and I don't. She, on the other hand..." Phoebe signaled Piper. "... is broadcasting general evilness. But as I said..." the witch looked down. "You won't   
be trusting me."

"I don't think you're the host Phoebe..." confessed the half whitelighter getting up with the, now empty, box.

"Then why am I surrounded by stones?"

"Precaution" he answered. "Anyway, I hope you understand my point and the fact that I just can't trust your empathy."

Phoebe sighed from her own shield.   
"And what now? Are you gonna trap Leo too?"

The alluded smirked at Phoebe's command, but then saw Chris thoughtful expression and frowned.

"You're kidding, are you??" Leo wasn't really convinced.

"You could be some kind of shape shifter working with the demon." The half witch explained in matter-of-fact tone of voice..

Leo snorted again and was relieved when he saw Chris half smile and say.

"Of course you're not a demon, the idea was stupid."

"Of course."

"I mean, Wyatt shield would have jumped if you weren't hi father."

There was a brief silence broke by Phoebe.   
"Jeez man... you do really take in consideration every small detail."

Chris shrugged, he had nothing to say about that.

"I am glad you two are having such a great chat... now, if the demon is in Paige, can you free me from this?" Piper's voice focused the general attention to her. The witch was sitting on a pillow on the floor, and generally glaring at the world.

"Oh, no. No way!!" yelled Paige. "Piper's still the demon... I mean that she haven't even left the protection circle, so the SoulShadow can't have escaped."

"Uh... the shield doesn't work with this demon." Phoebe explained.

"But since it can't possess Leo or Chris, they can spend their time finding out that's in Piper and then..."

"And why can't it posses them?" Paige was grwing angry at the whole situation.

"Beacuse it just possesses women... as you should have read in the Book of Shadows" Chris answered, involuntarily mimicking Paige's tone of voice int the future, when scolding them.

"We did read that... even if Paige have the memory capacity of a fish." Growled Phoebe. "So that means that the demon is in one of the charmed... and I vote for the older one."

"It's not in me!!" yelled Piper taking a distracted step and receiving a warning shock from the shield.

Unnoticed by the rest, Chris jumped in pain, biting his lip to stop a sudden yelp.

What the hell was that?? He thought, looking around for the origin of the pain. There was nothing but the sisters arguing.

"It's so you..." Phoebe said, lamely defending her point with what would amount to a five   
year old's debating skills.

"So not!" Piper said, also replying childishly.

"Oh, so yes!"

"So not!!" Piper took another idiotic step and received another bolt.

Chris gasped, momentarily out of breath

Shit!! Shit shit shit!! Damn!! Damndamndamndamn!!!! He cursed, suddenly realizing the main problem.

Why me??? Why? What have I done to screw my karma this much except for creating devices to trap lawful magical being like elders or whitelighters?

That was just fantastic!

He now knew where the demon was, but he couldn't tell them.

That would bring too many questions. And with the skills straightly inherited from his mother, his mind added:   
Shitshitshitshitshitshit!!!!

She may have touched the shield again, because he felt another paralyzing bolt.

"Stop that!!" He exclaimed angrily.

What was that demon?? A masochist??

But now everyone was looking at him, better say something.

"The thing... er... the thing is that's better for now to have the three of you closed so the demon can't go jumping from sister to sister. And for once, I got Leo supporting me about this, so you can't blame me of backstabbing you or something like that."

The elder felt daggers coming from the sister's eyes at him. Even from Phoebe who generally agreed with the idea but particularly was in serious need of visiting the toilet.

He ignored them and went to Chris.

"Any ideas?"

"None useful. You?"

Leo shook his head.

"I have an idea!!" Piper exclaimed. "You could free me right now and take me to Wyatt."

"That's a dumb excuse... and by the way You-are-not-Piper." Repeated Phoebe who had grown a wide smug smile with her sister last comment. "And I can prove it."

"Leave me alone, Pheebs!" The witch snapped, rolling her eyes.

But Leo at least was curious. "Can you? Remember that your empathy may not be working right, even if you think so..."

"I'm not talking about empathy, my beloved brother in law. Because I ain't just a pretty face with powers... "

"Then?" Chris would have sighed out of relief. Yes yes yes, please please please... let her have a solid theory. Pleeeeaaaaseee!!!

"Then, Chris, why does Piper have waited 'til now to ask about Wyatt? She was possessed when he reappeared and you yourself said that when fully possessed, people aren't aware of what was really happening... and she's yet to ask about why she is in a protection shield, she   
didn't even knew about the SoulShadow! What about that, sister?"

"That is the most lame detective work since 'Murder, She wrote' plots." Piper buffed before saying in a matter of fact manner, " Paige filled me up while you were downstairs."

"Did you?" Leo asked to the alluded.

"No! How was I to tell her anything if she was gloating the whole time about how smart she was and how easily she'd fooled us??"

"She is lying!!" growled Piper. "She is the possessed one..."

If Paige had Prue's powers, her older sister would have been stomped in the wall right then.

"Drop dead, Piper! You'll better be the possessed because if I don't see your head spinning in the next minute I'm going to clamp your mouth!!!"

"See?? She's enraged, she's possessed."

"This is useless..." Complained Chris, defeated. He'd hope for this to be an exit way... he needed to find something before the demon got shocked again. He just had no idea about how much a week old fetus could endure.

"No, it's not." Leo frowned, turning to Phoebe who nodded. "Because all this madness excludes Phoebe from the equation... and if Phoebe isn't possessed..."

"My empath powers are still trustful, and they tell me that the demon is inside Piper." Phoebe got up and signaled her older sister like if she was in some old witch trials movie. "Say! Who's the smart one now? "

The oldest Charmed one and, now the reconfirmed again, Possessed one, scolded herself and sat, muttering something in the lines of "Me and my enormous mouth".

Phoebe loved to gloat over her own smartness, but her blatter was in serious issues by then.

"You welcome. Now Chris, can you..." But she saw Leo's dark stare and realized something. "Oh... holy shit!! She is still possessed..."

"I beg your pardon?" Asked Paige, taken aback by the sudden change in her sister's mood. "I thought that knowing who was possessed and who wasn't was good."

"I think it would have been better if you'd been the possessed..."

"I BEG YOUR PARDON???"

"I mean... well... it WOULD have been easier to deal with..." Phoebe's intentions of explaining her words were highly ineffective. However, she didn't know how much the demon knew about the baby, and she wasn't going to tell it " Look... just orb some of these rocks away so we can   
finally move free and then I'll..."

"If I could orb the damn rocks, don't you think I'd done that sooner?"   
Complained the younger sister.

"Wh..." Phoebe started to ask.

"Those stones are special for whitelighters." Interjected Chris.

Phoebe, who had been planning a witty remark, found herself speechless.   
"You made special protection rocks for whitelighters?"

"No." Answered the young man and when she raised an eyebrow, demanding further explanations, he finished. "I created a set of rocks able to trap elders... I just supposed that it would work with whitelig..."

"YOU DID WHAT?!!?!! AGAINST WHAT?!!?!!"

In the other side of the city, Darryl, who was happily having some tea at home, heard the yell and dropped the mug, startled.

Even in the underworld, demons and warlocks stopped and looked around wondering about the sudden interruption. Some of them recognized Leo's voice in it and shimmered away.

Phoebe and Paige were momentarily stunned.

Piper-demon cocked it's head with a smirk.

Chris shrugged.   
"What? You can never be too careful!"

"Careful with the elders?" Leo could barely believe his own ears. "They work for the greater good, they work for us!! They..."

"They are powerful! From my point of view that makes them a threat."

Chris wasn't even looking at them, he was picking up the sets of stones and putting them back in their boxes.

"Wyatt is powerful too... " Phoebe stated. "Does it make him a threat?"

Chris, that had been placing the boxes in their shelves, answered without turning around.   
"You just don't realize how wrong is that question, do you?"

"It's what you said."

They saw his shoulders growing tense and the hands closing in fists.

"Yes Phoebe, he is a threat. That's what you wanted to hear?" His voice was hoarse.

"He is not. Not yet. But you can't go suspecting..."   
Began Leo, placing a reassuring hand in the young man shoulder. But rather than being consoled, Chris jumped at the contact like struck by a lightning and darted around, facing the elder. His eyes were burning with angry resolution.

"You're right, Leo, not yet. And he is not going to be because I'm going to stop it." His voice had started calm but grew enraged as he kept talking "And you can shut your mouth!! How can you say I go about things the wrong way?? You just have it so easy, don't you? You live in this... perfect world where bad guys wear black coats and good guys are in ridiculous golden gowns and you think this will last forever?"

"Chris, I don't say that..."

"No, Leo, now you'll let me talk!! Damn it, I've been trying to save Wyatt for six months and even if you don't trust me I've so earned my right to talk without being interrupted!!" Leo relented and Chris continued. "I just can't afford to live in that nice world, Leo... I do know what awaits us there even if I can't tell you, and I have to stop that. And I will save the future even if I have to put every single person in this world in a stones trap until Wyatt dies in his eighties in a bed surrounded by his grandsons!!!" the half whitelighter stopped, out of breath. None of them had never seen him displaying such a range of emotions. He hadn't done so in a long time, and the effort was exhausting him. "So if you don't like the way I do it, if you don't like the secrets, I'm very sorry, but there's so much in the stake and that's just the only way I know."

"We are powerful too... are we a threat to Wyatt too?" Paige wasn't sure if she wanted an answer, but had to ask.

Chris said nothing and simply averted his eyes, divided between what he wanted to answer and what he'd answer if he said something.

"That's mad, we're family!!" The youngest sister gaped, reading his reaction like a silent nod.

Chris reaction was a humorless bitter laugh.   
"News, Paige! Family do backstab you too!" and there was so much venom and sorrow in Chris voice that Phoebe felt like crying. Although it wasn't her feelings, his pain was overshadowing the potion like it had when they had met the psycho Chris.

"Siblings too?" She asked, knowing what caused all that pain.

Chris relented, taken aback by the question.

"Yes, siblings too." Answered nevertheless. Averting his eyes to a secret spot in the wall.

"You should know, shouldn't you?"

And the empath jumped at her brother in law sudden comment. She had been unaware of where her question had been leading the conversation. She wasn't anymore, nor was Chris, who's face was wax pale.

The demon inside Piper would have smiled if it had have a mouth. As it was though, it smiled with the witch mouth. All this trash could lend it an opportunity to get away if it played right it's cards.   
_Just wait for the right moment to strike..._ would have said an inner voice if it had have one. The right moment... and the young man with serious emotional problems would bring it to him sooner or later.   
Not yet, thought, for he was regaining his composure pretty fast.

Once he'd managed to put a nonchalantly face, he surprised them all with a small smile and a shrug.

"Look, people, we haven't time for this chit chat about who I trust or whatever..." Chris said in a no-nonsense voice. "Let's save Piper and then Leo can go up and complain again to the elders about my bad behavior and see if he can get me expelled out of you service. Again."

If she hadn't seen him going pale, Paige would have bought that he just wanted to finish all the possession issue and go on. That, in fact, nothing of what had just been said was really related to him.

But she'd seen his face fall when her sister had talked about siblings and fall even deeper at Leo's words.   
"Not now, Chris... she is not going anywhere right now and we have some more urgent things to talk about..." Paige said.

Chris bit his tongue hard to avoid making a face.

They didn't know, he'd been careful, he'd played his cards well, so there was no chance that they knew. Surely they were talking about something else, and there was no time to find out about it now.

"No, we don't, Paige... we must vanquish the demon first. Isn't it, Leo?" He knew Leo would understand what he was talking about, even if the elder was looking at him with a weird fix stare. So fix that he didn't even heard his question and Chris had to repeat himself. "Leo!   
Shouldn't we start with the exorcism??"

To Paige surprise, Leo agreed.   
"You're right, Chris. We'll save Piper... but later we have lots of things to talk away."

_They don't know! It's some sort of new, paranoid theory about me being a bad guy. That's it. Keep it in mind. They don't know!_ He found himself repeating once and again.

They couldn't know, could they?

No. No way.

Realizing that he was just being too neurotic for once, Chris straightened and picked the little box he'd show Phoebe and Leo in the room earlier and a piece of paper.   
"If no one else wishes to interrupt me..." he showed them the paper. "This is for..."

"They know who you are." Piper's voice was low and nice, a little bit cheerful. In a way it made Chris think of her own Piper when playing a joke at him or at Wyatt. "They know you're my son."

---000---

Do you hate me?

I'm sorry for the cliff... er... who am I kidding? I'm not!!

Muhahahaha!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!

Cough cough cough cough cough!!!!!

MUAHAHAHAHA MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Evil but merciful, please accept a very big cookie as compensation for the delay... and accept some tea and coffe too.


	12. Little tantrum

Hi there!!!

Long time, I know and I have no words (at least no english words) good enough to apologize. I'm busy and my acces to the net is short, so although I had this chapter last Friday, it's been some days until I've been able to post it.

Anyway, this chapter is pretty long and my beta says that she likes it... so I hope it's, at least, worth the waiting.

She said too that I was cruel.

I'am.

As I promised, this time I'll answer the reviews yo wrote me, I love them and I fill very guilty for the delaying.

**Jennie: **I can't help the time to update, sorry... well, I can, but then I would update even later. I re-read the begining of the chapter when I read what you'd said, and yes, it is, sorry... but I like it that way U.

**Cat Yuy: **Aps!! The Master it's late, sorry... and you don't have to bow... you can i you want, but you on't have to. Thaaaanks.

**Icantthinkofafnick:** XD I told you, but I meant that you couldn't go and read the end of the fic befote reading the rest… ¬¬U I hate when the browser won't open some page... so thanks for keep trying. And soooorry, I'm dying to read your fics, but I just can't connect... TT but I'm not ignoring them (so tell the cousins to stop sending me curses by e-mail).

**Queen of the Elven City:** LOL!!! Thanks!!

**ChrisBianca: **Thaaanks!! I tried to update sooner, sorry.

**Magical Princess: **XD

**mizunderstood writer:** Mean… yep that's me. It was just so... tempting to stop it there.

**ME:** thx

**Christine Marquez:** Yep, one of my favorites cliffies… And again, sooorry for the update, I'm doing my best in this area.

**Buffgirl:** Thanks!

**Lark:** So I guess that there's no cookies... TT But thanks!!

**Acacia Jules:** XD You've flattered e… I'm evil nd you like the store… my ego is growing.

**allaboutelephants22: **Don't worry, I should have posted this two weeks ago... Sorry for the cliffy... well, sorry sorry, no... just a little bit sorry

**zoned-out: **NASA? It's the Apollo XIII we're on… just late.

So that's it... I keep saying how sorry I am for the delay... and I swear I'll try to arrange the next one sooner.

Puppy smile

Here's the chapter:

---OOO---

They know you're my son.

My son.

They know you're my son.

They know.

Know.

Son.

No way.

"I don't know what you're talking about, demon." Chris answered, masking the sudden fear and horror he was feeling behind a blank face. He wanted to smile, act like it was a joke, but that was somehow impossible. His muscles wouldn't react, so he kept a straight face. "Now, as I was saying..."

"You're this woman son." The Soul Shadow insisted, whirling around as if it was in some kind of beauty contest. " You're a Halliwell."

Chris felt his blood drain away from his face but fought to keep a sourly facade. He was afraid that if he looked around at his aunts and Leo, his face would betray him.

"Stop that nonsense." He had lived this lie for months now and he wouldn't let a stupid demon with a lucky guess blow his cover. "That lie is simply pathetic."

If the demon had denied it being a lie, or had tried to discuss it with some argument, Chris would have found a way through it.

But it didn't defend his cause.

It just smiled a sweet smile full of love and looked at him.

"Don't you miss me, Chris?"

He felt his heart stop in sudden death.

"Do you want a hug? A kiss?"

Phoebe, or maybe Paige, said something, but the witch/whitelighter couldn't hear her. His heart was beating again, and it was beating so loud that the sound filled his ears and everything else went through it like through water. Muffled and low.

Everything but Piper.  
"Don't you wanna come closer?"

"Shut up." Chris' voice was hoarse and he was trembling.

"Do you love me?" It was Piper's voice in Piper's lips, with Piper's eyes looking at him in a way she hadn't for a long time. Saying words he'd been longing to hear again for eight years.

"I said shut up!"

The remains of the late furniture in the room slipped a few centimeters away, and the crystals in the windows trembled.

The demon smiled with those same Piper lips when it felt the soft tk wave. It had thought this would be far more difficult, but the kid was a bunch of emotions waiting for someone to pull the trigger.

"I'm sorry for everything that's happened, Chris..."

The windows cracked and some pieces of wood crashed into the wall.

"Shut up!!"  
He was trying to bloke himself against that voice.

He loathed it.

But a deep part of him wanted to hear those words, wanted to hear Piper talking to him even if it wasn't her.

"I'm so proud of you."

Even if it was a lie.

"STOP IT!!!"

The demon laughed when the windows finally gave in and broke into a million pieces, sending shards of glass onto outside garden. There was a painful meow from the street.

Leo said words and Paige yelled at the demon in Piper; in fact, if Phoebe hadn't been holding her she'd have jumped at her possessed sister.

But Chris was unaware of that.

He could only listen the demon talking through his long dead mother mouth. Dying for the new word to come out, to lie, to ease the pain.

"I love you, son."

Chaos and havoc broke loose in the attic as a tk wave swept every unattached object in the room and a silent Chris fell into his knees, grabbing his ears to stop the voice.

Little wood pieces flew around and hadn't Paige grabbed Phoebe and orbed them both away, the sisters would have been a nasty expressionist paintings on the attic's wall at the end of the magical explosion.

As Piper's laugh went on, wave after wave ushered from Chris through the room, stamping the young man pain into every surface, writing it in the wood and in the attic with such a force that for years Phoebe wouldn't be able to touch a surface in the room without feeling it, without cringing at the piercing sorrow.

Leo orbed himself away at the first wave, but remained in the attic worried for both, Piper and Chris. The second wave threw the stones away and the third hit Piper, but she, or the demon inside her, stood her ground without stopping the mocking laugh, not even at the fourth, fifth and even sixth wave did she stopped.

The elder yelled at Chris to stop and tried to orb to the woman one second too late, for the seventh wave grabbed her body and threw it in the air with such a force that Leo was merely able to stop the fall enough to save her, but not enough to save the child for Chris yelled in pain and fainted the moment she hit the floor.

Panic rose in Leo when Chris fainted; panic and doubt between his love and his future son.

Luckily, his mind regained control over the hysteria in time to make him see the truth.

If he saved Piper, he'd save both of them.

Probably.

The elder went to his ex-wife's side and placed a hand over her unconscious body, thanking the gods for the fact that the demon could only be hosted by women so he wasn't in risk of getting possessed. The white magic of the elders ran through his soul, to his hand, and to Piper's stomach where he felt for first time the new life growing there.

His son.

Something was wrong.

If he'd been a doctor (at least a doctor that had attended some infancy patients... come to think of it, any kind of patients in the last sixty years) he'd related her state to one of a pregnant woman involved in some kind of trauma car accident. But he wasn't.

And the only thing he felt was his son dying at a high speed.

Near him, adult Chris was disappearing.

Luckily for everybody in the room, especially Piper and Chris, Leo wasn't a doctor but an angel, so his powers weren't those of surgery and antibiotics, but magic.

Healing magic.

When Paige and Phoebe reappeared through the door, Leo was backing away from Piper and Chris was regaining his consciousness.

"What happened!" yelled Paige, alarmed. She began to run, but Phoebe grabbed her. Half to stop her sister from approaching Piper and the demon, half to stop herself from falling to the floor. A deep emotion of mixed grief, pain, hope, sorrow and love invaded her to the point she nearly fainted, so at the end it was Paige who was holding her.

"Phoebe??" The younger charmed asked, worried about the sudden reaction of her sister.

"I'm ok..." she managed to mutter. "Chris has managed to overload the potion... and my senses. What about Piper?"

Leo stood up, holding Piper's body in his arms.

"She is alright, just unconscious." He said, searching for a place to lay her. But the attic was definitely in ruins.

"And Chris??" Phoebe looked around too, although she was looking for the stones. Her nephew was laying on the floor and panting, face pointing up at the ceiling.

"He is unconscious too, but..."

"No..." said the half whitelighter in a whisper, raising his head with a groan. "I'm awake..."

Seeing how they couldn't help Piper, both sisters tried to help Chris getting up.

"I'm okay... I don't need you to..." The half whitelighter tried to push them away without succeed.

"Shut up, young man." Phoebe interrupted, if he wanted to be helped or not wasn't something to take into consideration. "You just got a 'powers going mad' episode, and that usually drains us pretty much..."

Chris shook his head furiously.  
"No!!" he exclaimed, pushing the sisters away. "Stop that! Stop..." the witch from the future stumbled and if Paige hadn't grab him he'd fell.

"C'mon, Chris, don't be stubborn!! You're exhausted to death, let us help you."  
The youngest sister tried to calm him and make him stop moving before she'd loose her grip, but Chris was too nervous.

"Piper, how is Piper?? I hit her!! How is she? Is she alright?? Oh, god, I hit her... oh god oh god!! Is she alright??" Agitation grew at each word until they all felt again a small tk wave. "I screwed up... oh, shit... I screwed up and hurt her!!! Oh..."

Fearing it would start all over again, Paige shook his shoulders roughly.

"Get a grip, you idiot, or I'll slap the sense into you!!"

But it was useless, Chris was trying to make her let him go and stumbled forward and backward as if trying to decide whether to approach his mother and see if she was alright, or get away from her afraid he'd hurt her again.  
"N-n-no... I have... she's hurt... oh god I hurt her! I have too... I..."

Paige slapped Chris, twice and hard.

And as she was doing so, she noticed a fact that, though not unusual at all, caught her attention. Chris wasn't crying. His face was pale, now slightly reddened in the cheeks, and shaken, contorted in anxiety and sorrow. It reminded her of the earlier version of her nephew. The one that would win a contest for a room in the Arkham asylum.

He was the image of pure and unadultered pain.

But he wasn't crying.

However Chris eyes focused again, leaving Piper's face and turning to Paige. He raised a hand to his cheek, not really aware yet why she'd done that.

With a steady voice, she caressed the young man cheek.  
"You have to chill, ok? Get a grip or you'll loose it again."

He nodded, looking more as a child following orders of a senior than as the cocky and self confident grown up she knew.

"How... how is she?" he asked, averting his eyes away to the gap of the broken windows.

"She is okay..." soothed Leo. "Both of you are okay."

The half whitelighter head snapped up at the words, but at least nothing moved or started flying.

"So you know." He said.

Now there was no uneasy silence.

"Yes, we know." Answered Leo. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you earlier, we were waiting for the right moment..."

"I see."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Phoebe asked from outside the room, she'd retreated to the door and could still feel the young man's feelings under her skin.

Chris shrugged.

"It was easier this way." He confessed.

"How is it? We would have helped you if you'd told us..." she hesitated before going on, she was slightly ashamed of what she was going to say. " We would have trusted you."

"Would you?" Chris showed his first emotion, no one was surprised that it was in fact sarcasm in the form of a raised eyebrow and a little smirk. "Hi, I'm Chris Halliwell, your son and nephew. Wyatt says Hi from the future or at least he would of if I had told him I was coming... But being my brother the source of all evil I just couldn't bring myself to do a social call and tell him."

Paige raised her arms in surrender.  
"Okay, okay Mr. Irony... maybe not, but you could have proved it to us in some way. Maybe with a letter or some secret from out past."

"You would have said that the letter was a forge and I'd just spied on you to discover the secret."

"And why didn't one of us come?" asked Phoebe. "We'd trust ourselves."

Chris face darkened for half a second before he forced the smirk to grow.  
"No, you wouldn't. You'd say it was a shape shifter."

"Maybe." Relented the younger Charmed; it was true. No wonder the kid grew up to be a paranoid… he was surrounded by them. "But I can't see yet how it was easier for your mission to lie to us..."

"It was easier... for me." Chris sighed, he couldn't make them understand. Not without telling them too much. "And I rather prefer if we drop the subject now."

Paige cocked her head. "You mean for now."

"I mean now and forever, I'm not going to discuss the plan with you guys."

"There's a plan?" Asked Leo, still holding Piper. "It's nice to know that there's a plan about my son's safety and I didn't find out until a few months..."

Chris glared at the elder, his guilty feelings mixed with those of hatred for him.  
"Yeah! Because you're being so useful right now by disappearing into Elderland every time the girls need you..."

Chris saw his words hit Leo like punches and felt a perverse happiness.  
He knew he shouldn't.  
But he did and it felt good.  
It was sick, so he tried to focus in some other thing.

"The thing here isn't Leo's lack of presence at home these days..." grunted Phoebe, all the range of emotions in the room was getting in her nerves. "But about you and your 'plan' to save Wyatt. Why did you come to the past?"

Chris laughed, that was a silly question.  
"Excuse me? What do you think? That I was bored at home and decided to come over here and say hello? I came to save Wyatt!"

"Wyatt? Not the future?"

Chris jumped at Leo's sudden question.  
"What? It's just the same... by saving Wyatt I save the future..."

"You do so by killing him..." continued the elder, matter-of-factly.

If the angel had just approached Chris and slapped him, the young man wouldn't have turned that white.

"Leo..." warned Paige, fearing he would go too far.

"No!! He is here to protect him. Wyatt is evil and bad in the future and yet you came to save him?" It may sound a stupid question, but Leo wanted Chris to keep talking, to tell them everything. "You talk about him like if he is going to be worse than evil, your nightmare and the  
major source of pain, and yet you want to save him? Why?"

"Because, as you just said, he is my brother." And because it was a response full of sarcasm and irony neither the sisters nor Leo could read the truth in it. Knowing all too well that they would never stop asking questions, Chris decided to stop it all at that very moment. No more  
questions, no more answers. "Now, maybe you should take care of Piper before she or it wakes up or dies... again."

Better focus their attention in something else.

Leo tried to complain, but the Piper groaned at the most inappropriate time.

"He is right, Leo. We must take care of Piper and the demon first." Paige said, looking at her sister before adding. "We'll deal with the rest later."

"About that…" Phoebe re-entered the room swallowing a sharp breath. "We should take Piper away from the attic so I can try and sense something. My senses are numb now but I can't sense anything from her... not from Piper nor the demon."

"What do you mean?" Chris frowned looking at Piper again, his face full of anguish. "She's... she just groaned, she is alive, isn't she?"

"Yes, Chris... Piper's alive... but I don't know if she is possessed. I can't feel the demon... can it hide itself? It's feelings?"

After a short thought Chris shook his head in negation. "No, it can't..." he answered with a dreamy voice.

His head was clearly somewhere else... and his tiny self had summoned a tiny demon, given it the sledgehammer and allowed it to hit him repeatedly. Hadn't it been such a serious situation, Chris reaction would have been a big "Ooops!".

"Maybe as she is unconscious..." ventured Paige.

"But I sensed him when Bianca did that nasty thing in his chest... and he was unconscious." explained Phoebe, signaling Chris.

"Then what? It just disappeared? Can it disappear?" Paige turned to Chris who bit his lips, uneasy.

Tiny Chris inside Chris's head sent away the demon and sighed.  
"Well... In fact yes, it can. It couldn't with the stones and that... but once they... er... broke and the shield vanished... erm... well, it must have know that we wouldn't allow it access to one of you... so maybe it just... erm... got itself sucked".

"Sucked? It got sucked?" Paige looked at him in disbelief. "What the hell does 'it got sucked' mean? Sucked like the shake in a milkshake? Sucked like a vacuum cleaner? Or sucked like a desperate man with 5 dollars on a Saturday night?"

Luckily Phoebe caught her before finishing the sentence. "You're a little too far from the point here, hon..."

Chris had to suppress a sudden and totally out of place snigger into a fit of coughs.  
"Sucked..." he said once the coughs were finished. "Sucked. It's some kind of shimmer... Demons are naturally attached to the underworld, more or less like we are attached to the earth by the gravity... so in a normal state, demons would naturally be... er... sucked, or attracted if you prefer, there. But they are not because of their natural magic... every demon have a natural power that allows him to fight that attraction... "

"Why does he enters a Speech Mode every time he has to explain us something?" wondered Paige, earning a new smirk from Chris.

"... Everyone but the SoulShadow," he continued "...so it developed a way to travel out of the underworld by demon-taxi and into our world... where it finds his beloved and yummy souls."

Taxi-demon? Yummy souls? Yummy? Chris groaned to himself. He was making bad jokes... that and uncontrollable emotional states were the common trait of pregnant women and crazy people.

Crazy pregnant women, on the other hand, were plainly dangerous to neighbors and housemates, as he'd found out when pregnant Phoebe stayed at the manor for some weeks.

Crazy pregnant men, however, weren't that hard to control.  
At least Wyatt had been happy with the console and some nachos until they'd found the counter curse.  
The halfwitch laughed at the souvenir of his brother with a eight month pregnant stomach and getting all emotional over a jelly.  
And here comes the uncontrollable emotional states, man, you ARE tired.

"So what happens when it's not inside a host?" asked Paige, looking funny at him. Wondering if her nephew had finally lost it. Again.

"It gets sucked into the under under under under under world..." Chris explained "It will be back... but not for half a day"

"So the demon got you angry so to remove the stones, then it could jump, and get away into the under under under world so he could come back later and take us by surprise?" Phoebe asked.

Paige rolled her eyes.  
"Geez Pheebs, that was obvious. What are you? The bad guy in a late Bond film repeating his whole plan just in case someone didn't get it?"

"You're being bitchy sister... are you sure you aren't possessed?"

Phoebe raised a single eyebrow and answered without real malice.  
"Go to hell." Then turned to Leo who was, in fact, having problems with Piper's dead weight "And we should definitely check that Piper isn't possessed anymore and lay her somewhere more confortable"  
"Orb her to Wyatt..." Chris suggested. "He'll know if it's Piper or not and if she is herself, you can let her sleeping there."

Leo nodded orbed away.

Phoebe took a deep breath once they disappeared, as if something had prevented her from normal breathing before the elder and Piper had disappeared.

She saw Chris straighten his back and sigh with relief, although she could bet he wasn't aware of his moves. And that wasn't the only change in his nephew. With his soon-to-be parents' departure the young man began to get a grip of his feelings again and within a few seconds she'd lost the link between them.

"What now?" she heard Paige asking.

No one answered.

Minutes went by and nothing broke the quiet silence.

After a while, Chris retreated to a corner and kneeled in front of some random pieces of furniture as if trying to fix something... although the pieces were so mixed that only magic would fix them. And he wasn't doing magic. Just rummaging around absentmindly.

The sisters, respecting his wish to stay alone, picked up the book and left the attic to the kitchen.

Once they had left the young man half sat, half dropped on the floor.

Piper was okay and alive. For now.

They knew the truth... which was bad, but not their fault. He would find a way to deal with it... and after all, in nine months, for bad or for good, everything would be over.

In nine months he was going to be born.  
Piper was already pregnant and Leo knew it. He'd told him. And he'd smiled.

How would Piper react?

What if he told her? It wouldn't mess the future... after all, if what he'd done to get conceived hadn't mess it up...

A new pain over an old guilt. But that had been a need; he couldn't allow not to be born.

And Leo had smiled when he'd told him.  
Would Piper smile?

He could tell her, couldn't he?

Oh... he wasn't going to do so, but he was still allowed to dream of it.

She probably already knew about him, after all... so she should knew she was going to be pregnant sooner or later. But that was a problem, wasn't it? For he wasn't sure if he could deal with Piper not being 'Piper', but being 'Mum'.

And yet, the opportunity to tell her about the baby, about Mini Him... to see her face.

When Leo reentered the room with a half sleeping Wyatt in his arms, he found Chris seating on the floor, looking nowhere with dreamy eyes.  
He felt guilty, for the young man, his son, was oozing and he wondered whether to wake him up or not.

The half whitelighter accepted that responsibility for himself by opening his eyes with a start.

Before there was a new loong and uneasy silence, Leo approached.  
"Hey... Are you tired?"

"No." Lied Chris. "I was..."

"Thinking?"

"What do you want, Leo?" he changed the subject hastily. "Shouldn't Wyatt be sleeping?"

The kid, upset with Leo for waking him up him twice in a night, moved forward Chris, trying to get free of his father and to get to the nice but sometimes spooky young man that kept telling him weird things every time he got pissed. But he'd protected him when bad men took him away from mum and dad and everything had gone very confusing.

And behind all that scary things he could feel in him, there was something nice, something safe that he only sensed in mum and dad, the weird woman that made faces to him, and the one who's hair colorchanged every now and then.

And even behind that, there was something else. A deeper link, even deeper than the one with mum and dad. But he couldn't yet understand where it came from.

"Where is Piper??" Chris repeated, now holding Wyatt.

"Piper is downstairs." Leo explained. "She is fine, sleeping."

"Good...Does she... Does she know about me?"

That startled Leo, that eyed him carefully.  
"No, she doesn't... she got possessed before we learned it..."

"How did you...?" Chris began... but then stopped for that would probably start a conversation and he didn't wanted to have a chit chat with Leo right now. No, better go to the point. "She can't know it... You can't tell her."

"Wh... What? Why?"

"It doesn't... It doesn't matter now, Leo. But it's important. She can't find out."

"But... Why? I mean... she'd like it. She'd love it for sure..."

Probably, thought the witch/whitelighter but it would destroy me, thought the young man knowing all too well that he wouldn't be able to handle it.

"What did you wanted, Leo?" he came back to the original question, changing the subject again. "Why is Wyatt awake?"

The elder surrendered to Chris's wishes, for now, and ruffled his Wyatt's hair.  
"I want you to put Wyatt back where he was."

"Sorry?"

With a careless wave, Leo orbed a bag from Piper's room and gave it to Chris.  
"While the SoulShadow is on the loose I'm not sure that we can protect him. But you managed to get him hidden even from us... so I want you to put him back there..."

"You are aware..." Chris began, grabbing the bag too. "That I can't tell you where he will be? That would break the magic."

The elder nodded. "It's alright... If you can tell me that he won't be unattended..."

The witch/whitelighter smiled at that comment and said nothing but a nod.

"Then it's alright." Leo nodded too and smiled slightly. "As you said, it's your plan."

Chris found himself smiling back, nearly apologizing for what he'd said earlier and felt sick of what he did.  
Some nice words from Leo and he melted?

So much for his never ending loath at him.

"Remember that you can't tell Piper. I'll be right back." He muttered, orbing away and leaving Leo with the unpleasant feeling of having said something wrong, but unaware of what was it.

Chris orbed into the kitchen.

Not the manor's kitchen, because hiding Wyatt there would have been a little silly.

But a kitchen nevertheless. And the moment he fully appeared there, something flew across the room and would have hit him and little Wyatt hadn't projected the shield.

A voice gasped first and cursed later.  
"What are you an idiot?" the voice said, alarmed. "I could have hurt him!!"

-------------

Done!

Thanks for reading it

Oh!! I was listening some music the other day and I discovered something...

"Happy Ending" would be the perfect OST for the Chris-Chrossed chapter.

U

Oh! And "Every breath you take" is perfect for the late relation between Cole and Phoebe (I always thought that song was the Stalkers anthem)


	13. The wrong way to explain some things

Happy New Year!!!

And I hope you all have had wonderful christmas.

Mine, by the way, was pretty bad and that's why I didn't updated earlier.

On the other hand, to make up for all this time, this chapter is ultra mega super long. Or at least, pretty longer than the rest.

**Jenna:** It's been a while so I suppose you're definitely feeling better. Thanks for the compliments, my beta says too that my english is improving.

**Nemesis' Arroz:** Thanks!! I love reviews saying I'm briliant. My ego love 'em too.

Queen of the Elven City

**Queen of the Elven City:** Read read read!! And you'll see!!

**teal-lover: **XD Thaaanks!! Not done, I meant done the chapter, not the story. What a mean way to end a story it would be.

**IcantthinkofaFnick:** Hug the cousins for me, will you? I left you with the doubt for a long time, I'm sorry. ( UU Helpless and sorry face)

**terra fea:** Your restless soul must hate me right now. Pukah pets the restless soul.

**Hoshi Tamamushiirono: **I really really really really really really loved your review.

**Christine Marquez:** XP Again Not done with the stor, ust with the chapter. And about who's in the kitchen... MwhaMwhaMwhaMwha!!!

**Gemini099: **Again and again, sorry for the delay. And the voice... this must be the wuestion of the week (well,the four or five weeks). read to find.

**allaboutelephants22:** Happy Borthday... TT a month late, I know, sorry. But happy birthday nevertheless.

**DC: **I'm sure I have a beta, thanks. Yet we are human and make mistakes.

I must say that I'm evil for I kept laughing anytime I read a review asking me If I'd finished the story. Not, the story is still going, when I said DONE, I meant that I'd finished the chapter. It would have been a poor way to finish Chris's adventures, wouldn't it?

Thanks again to As Always my wonderful beta who made whatever was in her hands to send me this back ASAP. You're fantastic!

**And yes, here is the story.**

* * *

Chris orbed into the kitchen.

Not the manor's kitchen, because hiding Wyatt there would have been a  
little silly.

But a kitchen nevertheless. And the moment he fully appeared there,  
something flew across the room and would have hit him and Wyatt if the  
kid hadn't projected the shield.

A voice gasped first and cursed later.

"What are you? An idiot?" the voice said, alarmed. "I could have hurt him!!"

"He is handsome."

"Too skinny."

"Not that much."

"Yet skinny."

"But we can fix that with enough food."

"I'm not sure... he reminds me of grams... so he'll be skinny forever."

"Perhaps... but he is still handsome. Do you want some hot cocoa?"

Paige interrupted their discussion to grab the milk from the fridge and some instant cocoa from a shelf.

"Sure" answered Phoebe, handing her a couple of mugs that Paige began to fill with milk.

The younger witch put them in the microwave oven, closed the door, stared a few seconds at the buttons, and cursed.

"Shit... I still don't know how this damn thing works... bah, whatever." The witch thought for a second.

_"Don't want it hot,  
cold I want not,  
warm is the right one,  
warm like the sunshine."_

Immediately a cloud of steam poured form the mugs and a chocolaty smell filled the kitchen.

"If I were Piper or Chris, I'd be ranting about self benefit or personal gain." Said Phoebe, pouring the cocoa in her milk. "Lucky for me, I'm not."

Both witches drank for a few minutes in silence, then...

"I'd say he is cute."

"Handsome and cute, ...except when he tries to kill us."

"Even then, he is cute... I bet Wyatt is cute too."

"Even evil Wyatt?"

"Nah! Evil Wyatt will probably be hot."

"I'm so not hearing you say that about our nephew."

"But didn't you said that Chris was handsome?"

"Well, he is..."

Leo coughed from the door of the kitchen, breaking the discussion.  
"This is so wrong!! It's my son we are talking about. And your nephew, you sick women."

Paige and Phoebe jumped, startled.

"Leo!! We were just... erm..." blurted the empath "We were just... talking about... about... erm..."

Leo took a couple of steps back in mocking horror.  
"No! I really don't want to hear the end of that sentence..."

Laughing, the sisters offered him some hot cocoa that Leo refused with a shrug.  
"I'm not hungry, thanks..."

"Maybe you should drink some of this..." suggested Phoebe, picking a whisky bottle of out a closet. "It's not very good, Piper uses it to cook every now and then... but it may help."

The elder raised both eyebrows, tempted.  
"That sounds really good..." he agreed. "But I'm already dizzy like it is, I don't think that getting drunk would help the cause..."

"I though you elders couldn't drink." Said Paige, drinking down the rests of her cocoa and sighing.

She was so tired.

Leo needed a few seconds to process the sentence and the answer, he felt as if his brain was made of cotton.

"Yeah... that's another good reason not to." And then yawned.

Paige did too, and finally Phoebe.

"Chris said that the demon would be out for twelve hours or so, didn't he?" asked the middle sister, suppressing a new yawn.

"Ye... ye... oaaaaaah yep" agreed Leo, his head lost in sleepy odes about his bed.

A/N: I swear I started yawning while writing this part (Pukah)

"Geez, I'm so tired..." Paige let her head fall, using her arms as a pillow.

"Why don't... oaaaaah..." Phoebe blinked away a few sleepy tears. "Why don't we sleep a little? You know, we could plan some shifts and sleep a few hours so when the demon arrives we're not all dumb and dizzy."

"It sounds like a good idea..." agreed the elder. "We don't even need to look into the book or do research... Chris seems to have everything sorted out."

"You're so proud of your selfconfident son." Blurted Paige, her head still down and her breath going slowly.

"I'm more pissed at his stubborn secrecy police... and worried for the fact that he doesn't like me."  
Leo was pretty sure of what he'd felt out of Chris, anyway if he'd hadn't Phoebe's guilty face would have convinced him.

"So you know..." the empath guessed. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice".

"How couldn't I notice it? I mean, with the stares, the silence and his psycho self going all mad at my sight... did you sensed it?"

"Yes... he is so nervous that his emotions keep breaking whatever barrier he'd build around himself."

"I think he drank the potion he gave you." Leo explained. "And yet, he probably has some experience avoiding your powers."

Laughing mildly, Phoebe nodded.  
"You can bet... having an empath aunt must be horrible."

Leo smiled too. "Sure... anyway, your idea was good, we need to rest..." he turned to Paige who was snoring softly. "She's already doing... so the first shift will be between us... what do you want?"

Phoebe looked at her sleeping sister and actually felt his eyelids closing.  
"If you can stand a few more hours, I'd rather sleep."

"Sure, I'll stay awake and wait for Chris to come back or until my head drops... whatever happens first."

They planned to stay in Piper's room so everyone would be covered and protected if something happened, and orbed there. Phoebe and Paige were deep sleep even before their head touched the pillow, and Leo decided to sit on the coach and read some of Wyatt books. He should have known better than to read a book specially designed to make toddlers with no attention span fall asleep. Stupid little Red ridding hood wasn't even at the forest when the book hit the floor and Leo started snoring...

Time went by before Piper woke up.

And when she did, she felt like if a thousand bees had entered her head while she was sleeping.  
She felt worried and drained... more worried than drained in fact, but yet she couldn't remember why.

The witch sat in the bed, wondering what had happened, and found herself touching warm flesh. Startled, she looked around to find her sisters lying asleep in her bed. A thousand exclamations, some more politically incorrect than the others, crossed her head although she said none of them. There was probably a good reason for it, it's just that her mind wasn't ready for them.  
No, better get some coffee first, and then ask the questions. Or maybe tea.

Leo was fast asleep in her coach.

Definitely, better take the coffee now and make some tea for when the answers moment arrive.

Carefully not to wake her sisters or her husb... Leo, or Leo, Piper got up picked up some clean clothes. Coffee was good, but first a shower.

There was something... something important.  
If only she could remember what.

Twenty minutes later the oldest Charmed One was clean and comfortable, sitting in the kitchen, digesting a dark coffee and hearing the raindrops hit the windows.  
Thoughts were still slow and muffled in her head, and everything that had happened yesterday was fuzzy. She remembered little, like being angry at Chris, and worried, and then angrier than ever before, and finally... finally nothing. A big blank.

And there was something else. Something she couldn't put her finger in for it was hiding in the shadows of her mind.

Piper was pouring herself the second coffee when she remembered it.

"Oh! Holy Shit!! Wyatt!!!!!" the witch ran upstairs, to her bedroom, blasted the door open and entered, grabbing a very startled Leo and shaking him away from his sleep. "Leo!!"

The angel grunted something, still half asleep.

"Leo!! Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo!!!!" she shook him again. "Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo Leo!!!!"

"Can someone turn off the alarm clock?" blurted Phoebe from under the blanket. Paige's hand appeared also from behind it and pushed repeatedly the off button of the clock.

Leo's voice was muffled and he looked barely awake.

"Wha... what? It's your turn? Is everything okay? Is the demon back?"

Piper shook him again, how could they have been sleeping while her son was away???

"Leo! Wyatt!!!" she finally screamed.

"Wh... What? What have I done?" he blurted.

"Not you, idiot!!" the older Halliwell said, exasperated. "I'm asking about your son!"

"Which one?"

"W... what? Your only son!! Wyatt!!"

Silence  
"What about him?"

"What about him?? He is missing!! Remember...?"

To Piper's much frustration, the elder relaxed a little and sighed. Yawning.  
"Oh... that."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"I mean..." the elder coughed. "I mean that he is okay."

"You found him? Oh! Thank you!! Thank you thank you!!!"

Leo blushed, trying to explain himself.  
"Well... you see, it's not that... " But Piper knocked the air out of him with a tight hug.

"I knew you would never let something bad happen to him! Where is he? Is he alright? You have to tell me everything." She demanded backing away a little and allowing Leo to get his breath back.

Suddenly, the elder thought, sending Wyatt away with Chris didn't seem like such a good idea.

"He... he is not here. Chris took him away earlier." He explained.

"What? He kidnapped him again? The son of a BITCH!!" Piper exclaimed, enraged.

To her surprise, both her sisters and Leo cringed at her words.

"Sweetie, you shouldn't be saying that..." said Phoebe with a uneasy smile.

"The bastard just kidnapped my son twice... what do you want me to do? Bake him some cookies?"

"In fact... maybe that's what you should do." Paige stated. "After what we've discovered today..."

"And what is it?" Piper eyed her suspiciously, and luckily totally lost Leo's desperate warning signs at the youngest Charmed.

"Er.." Paige saw Leo's gestures to shut up and gaped, unsure of what to do.

Phoebe solved it.  
"That he is not guilty!!" the empath explained. "He was just trying to save Wyatt from an evil demon that possessed us."

And with some help from her sister and Leo, Phoebe explained to her more or less every important thing that had happened in the last few hours with as little lying she could manage.

"So Leo told him to take Wyatt away again?" asked Piper.

"Yes."

"And that's all?"

"Yeah, sure."

More or less.  
She just skipped a few details and even with that, Piper wasn't that happy.

"I thought we didn't trusted him." She grunted.

There were some awkward glances.

"We-e-e-ell..." Paige began. "We didn't, but he saved Wyatt by taking him away and... er... " she turned to Phoebe, muttering "Some help here, honey..."

"And it was the best for him, you have to trust us." The empath went on.

Piper didn't look happy at all with their explanation but surrendered. She was confident on her silly sisters. And she was confident on Leo too.  
"Where is he, then?"

"Erm... We... I..." Leo checked his watch. They'd been sleeping for over three hours, more or less. But he'd forgot to ask Chris when would he be back... "I'm not sure, Piper... but he'll be back soon."

"Then we'll vanquish the demon and corner him..." The oldest witch planned out loud, completely missing the flying looks around her. "Because I'm not waiting any longer, oOnce everything it's finished I want to know the truth... even if I have to cast the it  
out of him."

"Yeah... 'cause it worked so well the last time..." whispered Phoebe, earning darting looks from everybody in the room.

"By the way." Piper said, remembering something important "I just hope that while he is out there with our son, Chris won't have one of those... nerdy changes he's been having."

Leo's tiny little self, inside Leo's mind, grabbed the nearest hard object, it being a plugged iron, and proceeded to hit his own head repeatedly.

It is well known, for those of you who were curious about what an iron was doing into Leo's mind, that and elder is perfect. So their appearance is perfect too and that's why their gowns are always perfectly ironed. But clothes care is not something you can do with magic and, contrary to what is a most common opinion, elders gowns does not appear already clean and ironed out of nowhere. Instead of that, there's a whole section in Elderland compost by those whitelighters that had been considered not proper, or guilty, of some major crime that are solely dedicated to the correct care of the elders gowns.  
If you wonder why such a work is considered appropriate for major criminals, that means you've never had to hand clean, dry and iron your own clothes, not to mention the golden gowns and (not golden) underwear of all the elders. And by the way... have you ever guessed where was Leo when the elders took him away before his marriage with Piper?

But I was explaining what was doing the iron in Leo's head... let's say that those clothes care penitential jobs usually have some minor psychological results.  
Some whitelighters have tiny irons in their heads forever, some simply crack one day and start ironing their charges heads.

You thought you knew all there's to know about elders?

Ask one of them about thenewbies week, once per century. Ask them to  
show you the photos... Gideon have so much to answer for... like that time they caught him wearing some woman underwear. That's a great photo.

A/N:

Mmm... there's some blue orbs forming in my room. Either the cheeses I ate for dinner wasn't naturally blue or elders don't like my investigation work about their natural behavior.

Allow me to go on with the story.

We were talking about Leo completely forgetting about Chris and his self changing issues.

"Don't worry, Piper... probably that curse is already over." Leo, who hadn't really thought about it before, tried to put a reassuring face while mentally cursing himself. "I mean, he's been himself for a while..."

His wife... ex-wife didn't look very happy with that answer but said nothing of it. If Leo had decided that it was a good idea to give their son to a neurotic stranger from the future, whom they knew nothing at all, and who, by the way, kept changing into younger versions of himself one of which wanted to kill the kid... on an afterthought...

"Are you really sure there's nothing else I should know?" she asked again. "Something that would put a little sense in all this madness?"

Innocence itself drawled an I-don't-know-what-you-are-talking-about in their faces, but Piper's head was still filled with cotton and wool...

She should have drank that second coffee before bursting upstairs.

"Piper... you know I would never put my son in danger, so believe me..." Leo said, earnestly "Chris won't let anything bad happen to our son. And I couldn't be more sure about it."

The alluded witch blinked twice.

"And why are you so sure?"

Paige and Phoebe looked funny at him, like wondering how could he be so dumb. And Leo simply coughed.

"I mean... I just have this feeling coming from him. And silly as it sounds, if even we hadn't been able to sense him..."

The witch sighed, her husband... ex-husband was plainly crazy. And annoyingly right... except for the fact that Chris was stable.

"If he is not here in another hour I'll personally go find him and drag his sorry ass here for a _10,000 happy questions and fast answers game_... Now if you forgive me, I'll go and do something in the kitchen".

Piper left, leaving them alone.

"I couldn't be more sure about it..." repeated Paige, mocking Leo's words. "Why can't we tell her? She would stop going ballistic on the boy... and Phoebe would stop looking like some mad puppet with incontinency..."

"I don't look like that!! " Phoebe complained.

"Sure you do..." Paige insisted. "You're making little jumps of anticipation, and your eyebrow is twitching like crazy... It's like if you had and I-got-a-secret ad painted all over your face."

"The thing is that Chris asked me not to tell her... and I promised."  
Explained Leo.

"Sure you did... " Added Phoebe, looking around for her shoes. "You'd do whatever it takes to stop feeling guilty... and to make him look at you more like he looks at Piper and les like if you were some kind of slug."

"Watch out, Pheebs.. you're being all bitchy empath again" said Paige, although she'd be able to guess so without her sister powers.  
Leo's pained expression were answer enough. "And once we'v finished all this, Leo will have a little father and son talk about their issues with Chris..."

"I will?" the elder asked. "I'm not sure he'll agree with that." In fact, he though, he'll probably clamp my head into this same walls.

"And what now?" asked Paige, still sleepy. "We should do something... but I'm not going downstairs to get Piper mad at me..."

"We should cut her a little slack... it's been barely... " Leo checked the watch. "Three hours since the demon got sucked. Let's wait a few minutes until someone goes downstairs."

"Good idea" agreed Phoebe. "And with any luck Chris will be back... and we can try to convince him to tell the truth to Piper."

Leo was pretty sure Chris would better eat his own lungs than tell Piper the truth, but he wasn't in the mood to discuss it with Phoebe, so he said nothing and went upstairs with the two remaining Charmed.

Once in the attic they began the busy job to put order in the chaos.

And as the main thing was to give Piper some time, they did so without magic.

It wasn't that difficult, the only thing to do with what little remained of the furniture that once were in the room was to sweep it away and buy some replacements.

"We should do something with the dust..." muttered Paige trying to wave the annoying wood particles away with her hand. It didn't worked.

"Oook--- let's see..." the younger witch though for half a second. "  
_The dust annoys me,  
my breath gets..._"

"Uoh Uoh Uoh!!" Leo placed a hand in his sister in law mouth. "No more spells for now until we know what happens with them..."

"C'mon..." Phoebe pushed him away. "I'm suffocating here, and I got your clothes sewed without major problems!"

Leo shook his head.

"In fact... " The elder muttered, reddening " I didn't say it because we were in a hurry, but you sewed my underwear to my trousers. It feels very uneasy."

"And what about the one in the kitchen?" Paige asked, although she was pretty aware of the answer to that.

"Well... I don't know yours, but my cocoa tasted like fried kitchen." confessed Phoebe.

Paige nodded, hers too.

"Well, then let's open a window!" and as she said, she did... and as she did, the storm entered into the attic in the form of heavy air and big raindrops that soaked everything they'd piled in the last minutes.

Piper was upset, and when she was upset she needed to keep her hands and mind busy. So she went downstairs and started cleaning the kitchen while planning how to rebuild the club and turn it into a restaurant again... or maybe a strip club... or a Japanese Tea Saloon...

She'd been doing so for several minutes when there was an orbing noise in the entrance and some mild cursing. It didn't sound like Leo. Maybe some whitelighters in problems or the elders... maybe it was Wyatt!... Although the cursing voice was somehow similar to...

When she stopped guessing and went to see who it was, the witch found a very pale Victor trying to control his breath next to someone she'd just seen some hours ago. Chris, in his early teenager looks, was holding Wyatt while laughing at the man.

"Here we are, Victor!" he was saying, and although he was talking lightly and smiling, he looked slightly pissed. "You wanted to know what was happening, didn't you? Now you can ask them directly and stop yelling at me."

"You little smart ass, I'd said that Leo's people would have some kind of age policy about who they hire..." Victor Halliwell grunted. Then he saw Piper and straightened. "Hi there, daughter... Who the hell is this midget and what's going on?"

"I'm not a midget!" spat Chris, trying to keep Wyatt from playing with his hair.

Before answering or greeting her father, Piper yelped and ran to grab her baby. Holding him close, the witch backed away from Chris.

When the teen motioned to her she backed away again.  
"You stay away from him, you little..." at lost of words, Piper simply growled and turned to her father.

Victor, by the way, didn't miss what the kid's hurt frown but also didn't knew what to do with it.

"Hi dad..." the witch said, nursing Wyatt who wasn't exactly worried, nervous, hurt, crying or whatever after effects a decent kidnapping should have. "...and I'm not sure I can give you any answer at all. But the midget..."

"I'm not a midget!" Chris repeated.

"He is Chris Perry," she went on, ignoring him. "Our new whitelighter that came from the future to save Wyatt... he just thought that kidnapping him would be a wise idea. About what's going on... do you want some coffee?"

"Er... from the future?"

"Yes"

"I want some coffee." Agreed the man, heading to the kitchen followed by his daughter and Chris who hastily got over Piper's rejection and tried to talk some sense, or what he thought that was some sense, into his grandpa's mind.

"So will you stop yelling at me now? I mean, it's not as if the twice blessed couldn't be able to protect himself against a damn half witch. He even likes me... "

"That's what stopped me from calling the police the moment you've started whirling and gleaming like a Christmas tree." Victor stated sounding pretty tired of the teen.

Chris, who was quite used on getting on his grandpa nerves enough to make it fun but never too much, added.  
"I though that it was because the phone wire had been cut."

"You cut it the first time you brought Wyatt to me!!"

"Uoh uoh uoh uoh!!!" Piper stopped the discussion, she was feeling sick again and that was too much noise and confusion. "Once more and from the beginning... Chris dropped Wyatt at your home earlier this morning?"

Victor nodded.  
"Yes, he... or at least the non-shrunken version of him, came this morning and did one of those things you always do... rhymed something, then I couldn't move and he cut the phone wire and started painting weird symbols all over the walls with some red stuff that I hope is paint."

"You did it?" Piper asked at Chris who was actually gaping at Victor's words.

"No!" He'd never done that, Victor would have used his bones to make soup. "Or at least not that I'm aware of..."

"Well, he was taller and looked far more unhappy and bitter." Piper's dad explained. "But it was him... once he'd finished he just said 'You must take care of Wyatt' and left, leaving Wyatt on the coach and me immobilized"

"And then?" asked Chris, earning a funny look from Piper for he was listening her father with a horrified expression.

"Then you came back five minutes later, apologized for forgetting break the spell, did so and disappeared again..."

"Ups... I bet you hated that..."

Victor's face would have made some small armies flee in terror.  
"You can say boy."

Piper served some coffee to Victor and sat again.  
"And after that?"

"Well, I tried to leave or to phone you, but there was no way to open the doors or even the windows. And no matter how hard I yelled, no one came or even heard me."

Chris was torn apart between gloating over his own future wisdom and the fact that doing so would mean a glare from Piper.

Gloating won.

"Did you heard that, Wy? I made a soundproof and escape proof spell, I'm cool!" exclaimed Chris, his brother babbled again, happily.

Piper glared at him and grabbed Wyatt tightly, trying to build a will barrier between both kids. Trying to break the weird connection that she could sense had been formed between her son and the teenager.

Chris saw the woman doing so and said nothing; he was starting to get upset at Piper's reactions.

Usually, the person obsessed with Wyatt was Leo, not her.

Victor, by the way, looked at him with a funny yet concerned look and went on, drinking the black drink with small sips.  
"Wyatt looked sane, thought. But I was worried about you girls, I didn't knew what that psycho was going to do."

"Which Psycho?" asked the teenage half whitelighter.

"You!" answered both Victor and Piper at the same time.

The teen smirked.

"However, everything was okay until Wyatt did that bluish thingy and disappeared all of a sudden. I was worried sick, so I tried to find a way out by all means, but there was none... until the psycho came back again carrying Wyatt in his arms... I could have harmed the kid if I  
hadn't seen him in time." Victor explained, looking at Chris in a 'You-should-feel-ashamed-look'. "But this time even before he paralyzed me or whatever happened, a golden gloom and some spooky shadows wrapped him and then this..." he signaled the teen. "... this  
thing appeared."

"And you started yelling at me as if it was all my fault." Chris complained.

At the beginning he'd found the situation pretty funny, full of possible danger for the continuum space and time, yet funny.

"I wanted answers!!" Victor answered, angrily.

It wasn't anymore.

Now everything was wrong and he was feeling every time less and less comfortable around those people that weren't really his family but some shadows of what they were going to be.

What would his older self have felt all this time he'd been with them?

Why did he come?

"Well, that's why you're here, so you can yell at someone else and stop being so... so... so..." unable to find the right word for, after all, he was grandpa and there were some things you can yell at your grandpa, not even think of him. Chris shut up, fuming.

Did he feel sick every time Piper looked at him with unknowing eyes?

Did he have the temptation of teach some bad words to little Wyatt?  
Because he would.

Did he have the temptation of blow the cover and explain everything?  
Because he was having it.

"And that's how we ended here." Victor finished both, the story and the coffee and turned to Piper. "What about you?".

Slowly and carefully not to complicate it too much, considering his father got nervous every time magic was mentioned, Piper explained the short version of what was happening. Chris was from the future, he was half witch and half whitelighter, came here to protect Wyatt. He had lied at them, he'd kidnapped Wyatt to save him from a demon, and he was changing ages for some reason.

This way Chris learned something; Piper had no idea about him.

_It's unfair._ Though his tiny teenage self, then added: _It's safe._

_Yet unfair, if she knew, I could tell her about..._ But his mind stopped himself before he could finish the thought._ Don't even go there, don't you dare._

_Don't go there. Don't think abou it, tink about the situation. Think about Wyatt and think about your father. But stay awy from that._

_Please._

_Think about why you're so happily talking with your mother when some hours earlier she was possessed and trying to get rid of Wyatt._

THAT was something interesting to think about.

She was possessed, meaning evil, meaning it's not wise to have her near Wyatt.

Yet she'd said that the demon had kind of shimmered away after leaving her body... that made sense. Kind of. And Wyatt was happily sitting in her lap. If the almighty ultra nice so powerful god wanna be twice blessed sensed nothing wrong in her it may mean that she was demon free.

Probably.

After all how would a common demon get over Piper Halliwell? He'd seen her surviving every evil, both upper and under world, sent at her.

The worst demons.

And the worse... _don't go there._

"So this kid comes from the future?" Victor interrupted his thoughts once Piper finished; he was now looking at him with a weird stare. "How far in the future?"

"Well, his older self said that something like twenty years, more or less." Explained Piper getting up and looking in the kitchen for some herbs. What the hell did she eat last night??

"Twenty years?" repeated Victor, frowning slightly. "And you said that he is like your sister Paige... part witch and part like Leo..." now he was looking back at Chris again. The teen was playing faces with his grandson, apparently oblivious of them. "Weird."

"You can say so, I mean, after all the problems we had with Wyatt some couple is going to have a half witch half whitelighter in some years..." the witch sighed, taking a better grip on her son that was struggling to approach Chris "... I hope they'll have it easier than us... Wyatt, for god's sake, don't do that!!!"

The kid had orbed into Chris arms again and was trying to grab his hair. Unfortunately, his mother snatched him back again from the teen arms.  
"You bad boy, I don't want you near him! I don't want you to orb to him, ok?"

But far from listening to her, Wyatt orbed again, now to Victor and completely refused to go back to his mother.

"Great, now you made him hate me!" Complained the witch in frustration.

That was a little to much in Chris standars for unfariness.

"Go to hell!! I've done nothing to him, why are you picking on me?" The teen spat back, furious. This was so... so... Argh! Why was she jumping at his throat every five seconds??

"Don't know... maybe because you kidnapped my son?"

Well, that was a reason, yet...  
"I didn't!"

"Your older self did! And keep in mind that I'm only delaying it because you're a kid now and have no idea of what's happening... But the moment you turn back into my Chris I'm kicking your ass out of this place so hard you'll end up in Cambotja!"

"There's no need to kick my ass there, I can orb!" It was a stupid answer and Chris knew it. He even knew that Piper had valid reason for being upset at him... error, at his older self. Nevertheless...

"Great! I hope you simply orb away and leave this family alone..." now was Piper time to acknowledge that she was overreacting at the kid because she had had just a long couple of days and was angry and frustrated. Nevertheless...

"Leave the family alone? I thought I was helping you to save Wyatt!..."

"Great job you did! And... and... and..." and she bent down into the dashboard and threw up. "Shit!! What the hell is happening to me?"  
She asked to no one in particular. It wasn't her intention, but in fact it sounded like if she was actually accusing him of something.

"Yeah, I just put venom in your food, probably."

"I'm not sure I shouldn't take that seriously!!"

"Sure, or maybe you shouldn't be up and upset at certain hours in your state." Spat Chris, completely out of his mind.

Piper's head rose and turn toward him at him.

"My what?"

At least, some reaction.

"Your state, Piper... Your state… do you need me towrite it out for you, or will you understand it by yourself?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Birds and bees, Piper!" She was going to acknowledge him, even if it was a little bean shaped him barely weeks or even days old. But she was going to acknowledge his existence as a part of the family. "Women and men, periods and sex! Now?"

"Oh, please..." Piper laughed at that, a high pitched laugh but a laugh nevertheless.

Laugh because it was absurd, high pitched because she was usually a damn Swiss clock with her periods but she was having a delay. Just some days, yet a delay.  
The teen read the doubt behind the laugh. He was, in fact, making a wild shot, but Leo had told him which day it was earlier, and subtracting nine months to his date of birth...

"You're pregnant."

"C'mon, what do you know?" It was Victor who made the unfortunate question.

"You mean apart from the fact that I'm from the future?"

Grandpa went to make some new comment but shut up.

"I'm not pregnant."

Chris rose his hands, he was having fun with it.  
"Don't blame the messenger."

How many people had actually told their own mothers about their pregnancy?

"I'm not pregnant, there's no way I could have got pregnant..." she began, then shut up and blushed at Victor's stare.

"Leo?" the man said.

Piper nodded.

"I though you two weren't together anymore."

"And we're not... He even signed the divorce papers"

Chris jumped from his chair.

"WHAT??? What are you talking about??!! How can you two not be married anymore?"

Piper looked at him as if he'd grown a couple more heads.

"You should know, future boy..."

"But... but you're pregnant... you two must have... you know..."

"Enough of that, Chris, I'm not pregnant."

"You are. Believe me in that, Piper. You are pregnant..." he insisted.

_Believe it, say it. I'm here! I'm inside you, I'm feeding of you... or will be in no time.  
_  
"Stop saying that, Chris, I'm not preg..." and again, she threw up.

"See? You always said that you were all messed with... er... the second kid."

Aimlessly, Piper sat in her chair.

The second kid.

She was going to have a second child?

That was so...

"You sure?"

"No doubt."

"Second child."

"Yes."

Shit.

"But that's not fair..." she complained, giving in.

"Sorry?" Chris draw a half smile, his mother, the one who had rised him, would have known the meaning of that smile and drop the subject.

"I can barely take care of Wyatt by myself," Piper answered, ten years too young to understand the kid in front of her. "I don't need a new kid around. I mean, I have a damn twice blessed, what's this going to be? The trice blessed?"

That wasn't the right reaction. Chris could understand Piper getting confused and all that, but then she should straighten and act all happy.

This was not helping his inferiority complex.

"Nope, he is going to be normal..." he said in a small voice.

"Great, so he isn't going to be able to take care of himself? Wonderful..." she spat back. Her head was spinning. She was already so tired. One kid was so much... two?

All wrong, all was so wrong.

"I didn't say that! He is going to have the powers of a witch and thus of a whitelighter... more or less." His voice was harsh, but he was going to start crying in some seconds, so that was a minor problem.

The kid swallowed hard and kept his eyes focused in the floor, avoiding Piper's eyes that were, actually, tightly closed.

She'd always said that both her kids were special, were loved and cared. That Wyatt being twice blessed made no difference.

That they meant the same for her.

It was a lie.

"Like what?" she asked. "Like blasting things or orbing things away?"

"More or less."

"Great... I hope that he can heal, because Paige can't..."

"He doesn't..." he admitted, then, because he had to say something else, something to make himself worth her, added. "But he is going to study medicine so he can heal nevertheless..."

Piper laughed at that, his unborn son wanted to be a doctor because he wasn't able to heal people with his own powers? That was kind of nice, she thought.  
"So he cares about people?"

Chris shrugged.

"And what about Wyatt, are they friends?"

"You can say so... Wyatt can be a real pain in the ass when he gets to it." and because he was missing him very much, added. "I think he worships his older brother."

He worships his older brother... Piper thought. But...  
"If he likes Wyatt so much why isn't he here instead of you?"

Chris laugh was short and dry, more like a bark.  
"He sure would feel thrilled at all the love you're showing for him right now."

It was a lie.

Piper waved the comment again with her hand. He wasn't there, and everything was just too unreal.  
"Don't act all touchy now, Chris. You've been the one throwing the bomb."

A lie.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, mum, next time I'll try to give you some less bad news about your future, like that you're going to die of gonorrea or that Wyatt is going to get his head cut at five...!!"

A/N Don't worry, only you all and I noticed the small slip.

"Don't joke bout that!!"

Lier. Lier. Lier. Lier.

"WHY NOT?" the kid yelled, unable to keep his pain in check any more. "I'm right! I mean it isn't even as if I'd said that you were going to give birth to a pterodactile... he is going to be a sane boy. BUT THAT'S NOT ENOUGH I SUPPOSE!!"

"DON'T YELL AT ME!!"

"I WILL YELL IF I WANT TO. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, PIPER? IT'S SUPPOSED  
TO BE A GIFT, NOT A BURDEN!!!"

"YOU'RE NOT THE PREGNANT HERE, BOY. SO DON'T JUDGE THE SITUATION THAT FAST!!"

Lier. Lier. Lier. Lier.

"WHAT IS THERE TO JUDGE?" Chris's loud voice broke without the kid noting it.

A new voice appeared in the scene.  
"What's going on HERE?"

It was Paige.

"I'M PREGNANT!! THAT'S WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE!" Piper answered, angry at Chris beyond words. "And that little smart ass here is being obnoxious because I'M NOT REACTING AS IF WE WERE IN SOME EPISODE OF 'THE LITTLE HOUSE IN THE PRAIRIE'!!!!"

"IN FACT YOU'RE ACTING MORE LIKE IF YOU WERE IN SOME 'BITCH QUEEN  
CONTEST'!!!" Chris yelled back in a very teenager manner, lacking common sense  
and self-control.

Paige eyes opened huge like plates while Piper's became thin, barely a line.  
"I beg your pardon? WHAT DID YOU CALLED ME???" she asked with no really need.

Chris remained silent, glaring back. His head was full of words he wanted to yell (_Lier. Lier. Lier. Lier_) and he knew that his bad temper was just waiting for the right moment to snap and get him in deeper trouble.  
Not that he cared much right now.

Victor was there too, wondering how many of his descendants would inherit Patty's bad temper and how could they live under the same roof without there being a blood bath every now and then.

Should he talk a little sense into their heads?

Well, knowing Patty's tantrums, better wait until both of them had breathed a little more.

Paige, unfortunately, hadn't talked that much with Patty, or even seen one of his... Victor liked to call them ultra bitchy attacks.  
"You both should just keep it quiet for a while, ok? I'll prepare some tea and we'll talk before this nonsense..."

"Drop it Paige." Spat Piper.

"It's not nonsense." Spat Chris too, without breaking his stare at his mother. Or whatever she was to him right now.

And the rant re-started.

"Of course it is nonsense! Everything here is nonsense, beginning by your age changing!" retorted the older Charmed.

"WHICH IS YOUR FAULT!!"

"NOTHING WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN'T LIED TO US!!!"

"SO MY LIES ARE THE BEGINING AND THE ENDING OF THE HALLIWELL PROBLEMS!!!"

"FOR THE LAST MONTHS? SURE!!"

"YOU KNOW WHAT? I THINK I'LL JUST FOLLOW YOUR WORDS AND DISAPPEAR FROM  
YOUR LIVES... LET'S LEAVE YOU ALONE TO DEAL WITH WYATT PROBLEMS!!!!!"

"FEEL VERY WELCOME TO DO SO!!"

"RIGHT!!"

"SURE!!"

"BYE!"

"BYE!!"

The kid began to orb.  
Then he stopped to orb.

And it was a main problem because he was already feeling warm strains of tears down his cheeks.

He began it again.  
And was stopped again.

Chris sighed deeply, there was a pattern in this block of his orbing,  
He'd felt it before.  
"Jesus Wyatt!!! Stop that!!" the kid turned to the toddler, his older brother, who was indeed pretty serious.

He tried to orb again. Nothing.

"It's no fun, you little slugg!!" but he could already feel the stubbornness of the baby building a wall around them. No orbs until it all got sorted out. He'd done that in the future too, damn little  
greasy ball of power.

He tried it again, and kicked the table in frustration when it was still didn't work.

"Wyatt!! I told you to let me go!!" Now he was crying and feeling all the stares in the room. Victor, Paige, Mum and Wyatt looking at him. He wasn't able to bare with that so he just turned around and headed to the door.

It didn't open.

First with the fists and then with his recently appeared tk powers, he beat the door.

He wanted to leave now, to cross the door and go back to where Wyatt was actually someone he could talk to. Where mom was mom... god it wasn't fair, he'd been just so worried for her this lasts months.

"Chris!! Chris calm down!" someone grabbed his arm and forced him to turn around. "Chris, please, calm down now, or you're going to destroy another room!!"

That last statement was what calmed him down. It was pretty weird.

Then he looked and saw Paige with a worried face.

"Calm down... you're going no where right now or so Wyatt thinks... and I don't want you to break the door down... or the kitchen." She actually embraced him. "I know you're upset..."

The kid fought to push her away and to get a grip. Unable to do both, he kept the hug.

"I'm... I'm so- sorry... I just... I really think I should be going... I..." he was still crying and it was hard to talk. To try to make them understand whatever lie he could manage. "Wyatt, please, put this shield off... I have... I shouldn't... I..."

"I'm sorry."

If there were really three words that could have stopped him, Piper found them.

"I'm sorry." she repeated, her eyes focused on the kid's tear strained face, that had cut through her mind and burned her soul with guilt.

Meaning, what the hell was she doing yelling at a poor teenager? She wasn't even that mad at him but at the whole situation, and she'd just used the fact that the kid was getting angry to give some escape to her own rage.

"I just... I was angry... I'm angry, but I shouldn't have picked it up at you. What I said... I didn't mean it."

And she didn't. Not all of it.

She knew that this Chris had nothing to do with it and that he was probably pretty scared of the situations by itself. So much for her mothering instincts if she was able to put to tears a random teen just because she was feeling sick.

"Nothing of what's happening have really been your direct fault..." she said.

Chris relaxed in Paige's arms, but that just made the witch tighten the hug.

"I'm sorry too." He admitted. "I was... I... I should have understood that you were nervous. I mean with the baby news and all that..."

"That isn't your fault either..."

Now this looks like a 'The little house in the prairie' episode, thought Paige feeling relieved when her whitelighter senses acknowledged that the orbing wall was out. The damn toddler surely knew too much for being such a little boy.  
That should mean things were getting better.

Victor knew better than that. Chris cheeks were reddening out of anger again.

Lier.

"Fault?" the kid asked, his voice smooth like silk. "Fault like 'Big problem that should have never occurred'?"

"What?" the older charmed asked, fooled by Chris's calmness. "I didn't said that..."

"Then you wanted this to happen?"

That wasn't fair for Piper, Victor thought, Chris was playing with marked cards while Piper was unaware even that there was a game.

Lier. Lier. Lier. Lier.

"No!! I mean... not exactly... " The witch felt the teen eyes were nagging in her skin like nails. She felt the sudden need to explain herself, yet unable to express a straight thought. "I wasn't planning on this, but it happened and..." this was so confusing.. "Well, I just said that this isn't your fault. I did a mistake and..."

Chris orbed away.

A moment ago, Piper was talking and the kid was in Paige's arms.

Now, he was away and Wyatt's wall up a second too late to stop the kid,  
but not to stop Paige's senses to locate where he was heading.

"What... did I say?" Piper asked, looking around for an explanation.

"You said 'mistake'." Paige explained, furious at her, yet knowing Piper had done nothing in fact.

"I meant that I had..."

"I know what you meant... but he doesn't."

"I don't get it." The older Halliwell witch confessed.

"That's the main problem." Victor stated, still holding an upset Wyatt that simply orbed away and to Leo's arms. The plan was to get away, and it didn't really worked because the elder was actually appearing right to that moment through the kitchen door.

"Woah, man!! Where's the fire?" he exclaimed at the nervous toddler. "Hey! Chill, Wy! There's no need to be like this!!"

What shows how much an all knowing angel can, in fact, know nothing of the current situation.

**IN MEMORIAM**

**JOSEFINA RAMON MOR**

**December the 28th 2004**

Finished.

I mean the chapter, not the story. !

The story will be updated soon... pretty soon if I can.

I swear.


	14. And when I thought the plot was all unfo...

**HI! **

**ducks the tomatoes **

**Hum...**

**Er...**

**Hum...**

**Sorry?**

**There's not exactly one big good excuse out of my lack of updates... just lots of things getting in the middle. Like... like... like when AsAlways (lovely Beta) and I were calles to save the world from the terrible... er... the horrible dark beast of AAAAAAaaaaargh!... it was horrible... and we fought..., and then we won... but the elders told us to go to that other cave with that big spider-demon (not the gothic wanna be of the show, a really big and scary one) yet we were saved by our amazing bug armies. We thought that that was it, that we would be going back then... but oh, fatality, we found ourselves in a weird hippy place in the middle of the council and before we knew what was happening we'd been engaged into a new adventure with some other fol and a man that looked weirdly similar to Mr.Smith put us a funny name and send us to I don't know where in order to destroy some weird piece of jewelry... mmmh... we walked a lot (I mean, they could have constructed their home far nearer the damn volcano... or better, lend us those damn eagles to make the travel) and did what we had to do for the greater good (even when that meant that we had to throw the good old Frogo into the volcano because after all the walking he got cold feet and decided to keep the damn thing)... Ah, but our adventures wouldn't end there, after the whole Mr. Of the Rings thing the damned golden gowns said that we had to go and find some lost Ark, and later it was a lost temple, and then a lost goblet... when they asked us to look for their lost wash... well, it was too much and we quit and came back to do the update.**

**All true to the hurt... isn't it As Always?**

**(absolutly faked AsAlways voice: Yeah yeah, true!)**

**Hum... I hope there's stil someone reading this after the completly honest explanation... yeah, better quit it while I'm still alive.**

**So, I know it's late, but thanks for all the reviews:**

**Jennie:** You were glad that I finnally updated and... hum... let's drop that. Yep, Wyatt was with Victor, I thought that if Chris had to leave him with someone that someone would be the 'awsome' grandpa. And yes, I meant 'liar' TT ups! I keep doing that mistake again and again.. like 'quiet' an 'quite'. Josefina was my grandma, thanks for caring. Oh... and you refered again about updates.. hum... leaves whistling

**Terra fea:** Hum... you'd been checking the fic for updates then... I hope you're still around now because I really liked your reviews. I'll give you very big cookies, and yes, I'll try to mark it... I did, but erased the separations somehow TT

**Zoned-out:** I'm alive, I'm alive! I'm still alive! I swear it. Dies in shame.

**Kilikapele:** XDDD I'm glad you liked it U and I hope you're still around to check for this new one... this so delayed new one. (I have good excuses, read at the top! TT)

**Piper wyatt-Halliwell: **Thanks!

**Allaboutelephants:**You welcome and... hum... well, about the updating soon... looks around at the glares and runs.

**Teri:** Hey! You read the whole story? Ouh! I'm impressed! Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

**Wonder:** Should I feel guilty for making you cry? I don't... TT sorry, it was the intention, I'm in fact happy I got it thanks for reading.

**I don't know : **Hum... er... about that of being finished soon... well, it make take longer (at a regular update) because while writing this chapter somethings were brought into my atention and... well... the story keeps developing by itself without me... hum... runs

**Update already:** I sense some subliminal message from that name... Sorry for the delay, here's the update.

* * *

**In the last chapter:**

_"Fault?" the kid asked, his voice smooth like silk. "Fault like 'Big problem that should have never occurred'?"_

_"What?" the older charmed asked, fooled by Chris's calmness. "I didn't said that..."_

_"Then you wanted this to happen?"_

_That wasn't fair for Piper, Victor thought, Chris was playing with marked cards while Piper was unaware even that there was a game._

_Lier. Lier. Lier. Lier._

_"No! I mean... not exactly... " The witch felt the teen eyes were nagging in her skin like nails. She felt the sudden need to explain herself, yet unable to express a straight thought. "I wasn't planning on this, but it happened and..." this was so confusing.. "Well, I just said that this isn't your fault. I did a mistake and..."_

_Chris orbed away._

_A moment ago, Piper was talking and the kid was in Paige's arms._

_Now, he was away and Wyatt's wall up a second too late to stop the kid,  
but not to stop Paige's senses to locate where he was heading._

_"What... did I say?" Piper asked, looking around for an explanation._

_"You said 'mistake'." Paige explained, furious at her, yet knowing Piper had done nothing in fact._

_"I meant that I had..."_

_"I know what you meant... but he doesn't."_

_"I don't get it." The older Halliwell witch confessed._

_"That's the main problem." Victor stated, still holding an upset Wyatt that simply orbed away and to Leo's arms. The plan was to get away, and it didn't really worked because the elder was actually appearing right to that moment through the kitchen door._

_"Woah, man! Where's the fire?" he exclaimed at the nervous toddler. "Hey! Chill, Wy! There's no need to be like this!"_

_What shows how much an all knowing angel can, in fact, know nothing of the current situation._

**And now in the Charmed Ones:**

Let's see.

Leo looked around at his ex-family:

Piper was looking flushed and slightly green.

Paige was generally glaring at everyone and everything.

And Victor, whatever he was doing in the manor, was now glaring at him.

The elder took a better grip of Wyatt, who was trying to break free of his hands even if that would mean an ugly fall.  
"Hey, hey!" he tried to calm his son. "What's happening?"

And that was pretty much the question. What now?

"Teen Chris came with Victor and Wyatt." Paige explained in a conversatory voice, just like if she was telling him the new gossip some stupid reality show. "Victor came with Chris, I think. Chris and Piper had a discussion, again. Chris left. Now can you tell me again why shouldn't we tell Piper what she doesn't know?"

"What is it I don't know?" The alluded asked, confused.

"Nothing!" spat Leo, glaring at his sister-in-law.

"Leo?"

"It's nothing."

"Paige, what is it?"

The younger sister looked at the elder who shook his head. She'd made a promise.

"It's not my decision, Piper. I can't tell you." She answered, wondering if that was the right decision. Wondering how Piper hadn't found out by herself. Although she'd been living with Chris for half a year and she'd never suspected anything. It was hard to guess.

"Oh for gods sake! What is it? I mean, it can hardly be worse... " She stopped herself before finishing the sentence. "... hardly be more surprising than... than..."

The witch breathed deep. There was so much to talk about... so much to do... she had to tell Leo. Yet if he knew, everything would be far more difficult. Paige knew, though... and Victor. Leo would find soon, and better if he knew from her than from some kind of elder memo or sister gossip.

And there was teen Chris too. He seemed pretty disturbed. Maybe he knew the kid. He probably did know the kid, they may be friends in the future. Yes, that explained everything. A/N: ��U...

"We should be looking for Chris." Leo finally said, not looking at her. "He is alone here, far from everything he knows. And he may change again..."

"You're right." Piper conceded. "Let's start looking for him and put this 'Secret-that-Piper-can't-know' in the list of things to talk about later."

Paige raised a brow.

"There's a 'things to talk about later' list?"

"Yes... and it's growing longer and longer every time Chris enters in the discussion..." The older witch answered, sighing. At least her stomach was settling down.

"Why don't we discuss everything once we've found Chris?" Paige interrupted them. "We should split up... a whitelighter/elder and a common charmed witch per team." The witch exposed her plan, waiting for their nod before adding. "Perfect, then... I'll go fetch Phoebe and we'll go to the underworld... you two start scrying and sensing."

And with that she orbed away before one of them could even think of protest for the arrangements.

"And what about Wy? We can't bring him with us..." Piper took the kid from her ex-husband arms, a little afraid that he'd still be angry.  
But he was quiet, looking around with worried eyes, a little too much knowingly for his own good.

"I could orb Wyatt 'up there'... so he'll be safe." Leo proposed.

The witch frowned. She highly disliked Leo taking Wyatt with him to elderland, they were all so fussed about her son. They meant well, yet it wasn't right for a kid to be treated like some kind of wiccan Dalai Lama...

Victor interrupted them.  
"Or I could take him with me to my apartment where he'll be safe and no one will be able to find him... Or so the midget said..."

Victor, for once, disliked the elders more than he disliked Leo. They had his daughters and Paige enslaved in order to  
serve that greater good that, for what he knew, had never done any kind of good for them. The only thing it had done was take away his older daughter. The brave Prue.

He knew Leo would die for his daughters, for his grandson. Yet he knew too that the elders would let them die without a blink of an eye if that served their greater good.

No matter what his daughters and Paige thought, he did payed attention when they talked about magic.

"That would be great, dad..." Piper immediately grabbed the chance to spare her son from the elders.

"I'm not so sure... I mean, Chris told me that if we ever knew about where Wyatt was hiding, the spell will be broken." Leo explained, happy to have a better argument than 'It's safer up there'.

Piper cursed.

"Chris told you so?" Victor asked with the shadow of a suspicion.

"Yes, when I asked him to take Wyatt to a safe place again. I didn't ask for more details because he'd been ranting of how this was his plan and we should not interfere with it."

Victor's eyebrow raised like two feet higher.

"His plan?"

"Yeah, that's what he said..."

Piper's dad sighed, drawing a small smile.

"Ok, let's check it, nevertheless. Leo, orb me to my apartment and let Piper look for us with her crystal thingy."

"But..."

"No 'buts' young…old man, give me some confidence, will you? I know what I'm doing."

"Leo, please..." Piper asked, wondering what her father was talking about. "Give it a shot, ok? Wyatt have been safe there until now, and I will be more comfortable to have him there, if it is still working."

And because Piper was asking him to do it, he obliged and brought Victor to his apartment.

The moment he set a foot in it, well both feet at the same time in fact, Leo felt a wave of nausea and dizziness that nearly knocked him unconscious.

"What the...?" Victor helped him sit on the coach. "Are you okay, Leo? What is it?"

The elder breathed deep, trying to focus, and was suffocated by a deep, penetrating, smell.

Blood.

The realization snapped his eyes open.  
All kind of symbols, unknown words from unknown languages, and a dozen different runes of protection covered the apartment walls. A safe house painted in blood that, some how, was still wet and dripping. It smelled like a slaughterhouse, even worse, for although part of the blood was from demons, there was something else, some blood that wasn't damned but pure, and stinked in his nostril for the abomination it meant.  
Fresh blessed blood from beings that were only meant to be looked at, to be admired.  
To be loved.

"I told Piper he'd done some painting in the walls." Victor explained. "I suppose it's not red paint, then... it doesn't smells like paint."

"You can bet it's not red paint." Leo agreed trying to calm down his anger. He was not going to jump to conclusions; he'd learnt to do better than that in the past few hours.

But you can bet I'm going to talk with Chris about all this... he thought. Oh, sure I'm going to talk to him about certain kind of magic he's been using.

"About my grandson..." Victor began.

Leo sighed, not wanting to start a discussion.

"Look, Victor, I know you're trying to help, but this place stinking of blood does not prove he is going to be save here." Leo tried to explain. "And in fact I'm not sure I want him near..."

"I wasn't talking about Wyatt..."

The elder had the decency of looking uneasy.

"I was talking about the young man/midget and who knows what else that came from the future to do some task. Apparently it's related to my other grandson, and about my daughter who knows little or nothing but the fact that she is currently pregnant, again, from you."

"She knows she is pregnant?" Leo's heart skipped a beat or two.

Victor sighed, could this be even more drama? What else? Was Paige soon going to discover she had a secret Siamese twin that had been raised by gypsies?

"Yeah, she knows because the small time traveler told him a few minutes ago, in the middle of a hot discussion that finished when she said how big a mistake it had been..."

The elder's face fell at Victor's words.  
"What? She said what? She thinks it's a mistake?"

The 'apparently' older man rolled his eyes.  
"Leo, focus! She doesn't think it's a mistake. She is tired and worried. She just got angry and yelled the first thing that came through her mind at the top of her lungs..."

"Piper is not like that." Leo defended.

More eye-rolling.  
"Yes she is. My daughter tantrums where mythical and terrible when she was a kid, yet so spared that people only remembered Prue's. And for your information, she got that from her grandma, yet Penny's were far more regular..." Victor felt a little fun when Leo cringed at the thought that Piper could have inherited something from Penny. And he passed probably it to his son. "I mean, from what I know, last time you left she nearly drowned us all... The thing is that she said lots of things not knowing who Chris was, and Chris said lots of stuff because... well, because he was angry too... and in the middle of that, she told him it had been a mistake and then he orbed away. Believe me, I may not know my daughter, as good as I should, but I do know Penny and her bitchy moments, and she would say lots of stuff just the moment they crossed her head... and she may not always mean them... well, when she was yelling at me, she did meant them for sure, all of them, probably. But not with her daughter, and not with those she loved. She just had this very bad temper and this capacity to hold grudges till death..."

"What do you mean, Victor? Because it looks like if you're saying that Piper is like Penny, and that may be pretty offensive..."

"Don't be silly, my daughter is nothing like Penny... yet her tantrums may be, and her son tantrums too..." he explained. So when you find him, if he starts yelling and throwing things at you all, don't let it bother you too much, he is probably angry..."

"And what do you think I should do?"

Victor thought about it.  
"Well, with your grandmother-in-law, I usually shut up and let her rant for as long as she thought it was necessary, hoping the day would come when she'd finally have a heart attack and die."

Leo looked at him with a blank stare, not knowing if he should take his words seriously.

"You don't have to hope for the kid to die, but you better not try to reason with him…just let him stay mad for a while and he'll calm by himself." Victor finished.  
Then smiled and added. "If not, I found that a couple sleeping pills in her tea would do the trick as well."

Leo couldn't help but to smile. Sleeping pills. Penny would have killed Victor if she'd ever found out.

"Ok, thanks... look, I'm gonna go back to Piper and see if she's been able to track you with the scrying, ok?" The elder asked, thinking : then I'll orb Wyatt to a place where people don't drug their mother-in-law to keep them calm. Even if that mother in law was Penny.

Leo disappeared, leaving Victor alone with his own thoughts that were revolving around Penny. He decided to think about something else, Penny usually gave him an ulcer.

The not as old man, yet grandpa nevertheless, walked around the room, looking at the walls and guessing how much would it cost to take the paint away. Or maybe he could leave it there, so Piper could bring Wyatt there every time she thought the kid was in danger.

Would it still work if he painted over the wall?  
Or maybe some papered over it?  
It was pretty messy to do... yet it may work.

And talking about messy, he should clean up a little his apartment.  
There were some clothes on the floor and old papers on the table, plus like a dozen blankets on the coach he couldn't even remember what where doing there.

Leo orbed in with Wyatt in his arms. Apparently, the kid didn't mind the smell.

"You couldn't find me, then?" Victor asked with a smug smile.

"Neither scrying nor sensing... the charm is still working." Leo conceded, handing him the kid. "How did you know?"

Grandpa's smug smile grew.

"It was HIS plan, as you said, he was not going to allow you onto it, even if that meant a lie."

"He lied to me just because he didn't wanted me to know where Wyatt was?" Leo asked, startled. "That's... that's... did he inherited that too from his great grandmother?"

"More likely he inherited it from me..." Victor said with a shrug. "Now you can understand why Penny and I had such big problems?"

Leo nodded, wondering if these confessions were some kind of truce between them. Also wondering how many things did Victor actually know about the Charmed Ones.

What happened in the past that made him leave?... living with Penny looked like a hell of a reason. Nevertheless, he could no longer complain about that, could he? It would be like the pot calling the kettle black.  
"I'll be leaving," he muttered. "We must find Chris."

ooOoo

Leo looked at his ex-wife scrying and supressed a moan.

Chris was not on the map.

Meaning they were physically unable to find him there.

Meaning he may be in the underworld, dead or running around San Francisco covered in bloody symbols, words and runes.

And when I said bloody I wasn't being British.  
I was being literal.

Or he may not.

He may be dead. Leo thought, worried to death. Maybe he was, maybe he'd been hit by a car.

Or maybe a demon had eaten him...

Maybe it was already currently devouring him in some dark alley in the worst part of the city.

Maybe it was cooking his lungs and stuffing apples where his guts should be.

Heating the oven.

Getting the sauces ready for the meal.

There were so many things that could have happened in the five minutes they'd been looking for him.

Piper had been scrying and he was watching her, feeling absolutely useless.

There was nothing he could do to help, nothing but look at the crystal twirl round and round above the map. The inactivity was killing him..., knowing that some demon could be in some cave, checking a 'How to Cook Humans' book, wondering if he preferred Chris grilled or if a simple soup would do... and he was sitting around, useless...

"Can you sense him?" Piper asked, interrupting his momentum of hysteria.

"What?"

"Sense him... with your elder powers..."

The elder felt a stupid grin forming on his overstressed face.  
"Oh... yeah... sure... my elder powers... of course... I was just going to do so... sense him... what a great idea."

Leo closed his eyes and began sensing, but there were too many feelings in the manor and even if he wasn't able to empathize with them, to feel them as Phoebe could, they were still there, interrupting his powers.  
Finally he gave up. "I can't do it here..."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked, raising her head from the point on the map she was scrying. Cold Chris actually orb to Cambodia"

"I mean that everything in the house is too messed up... the attic, for a start is impregnated with his powers. It keeps getting my attention every time I try to sense him."

"So the sensing is related to the powers?" Piper wondered. "Curious... anyway, the map isn't helping, yet the only thing I have right now from him is this sweater." She showed him the oversized pullover Chris had forgot in the manor some time ago. "We should drop by his place in P3 and grab something better. Let's do both things, you can bring me to P3 while and then go to the bridge, let's see what you can find there? It's ok?"

"Sure..." Leo agreed, grabbing her a little too tight, not that Piper complained, orbing to the local first. He said his good byes and then orbied to the bridge.

And that's the thing with writing only from one point of view, even if I go changing the source of that point of view every few sentences... while I was telling you how worried Leo was, I wasn't telling you that Piper's mind had been the whole time focused on her pregnancy, so focused that every time she'd tried to find Chris on the map the crystal kept going round and round and suddenly pointing at her belly.

Fortunately, now she is alone and I can focus on her and tell you that she is enjoying again the marvels of pregnancy... resumed again in headache, backache, stomachache, nauseas and general dizziness. On the plus side, she was beginning to override the shock and Chris words were sinking in her head: A new child. A little partner in jokes for Wyatt... a little brother or sister (had they been talking about a he or a she?)... a kid that wanted to be a doctor because he or she couldn't heal.

What kind of future awaited him/she?

Realization shocked her when she remembered something she'd asked to Chris... another child... in that future, a bother for Wyatt.

Evil Wyatt.

Was the child evil too?

If not, how will he cope with it?

What will Wyatt do to him?

Another child.

She would talk to Leo. She was not disposed to do this alone again, not without fighting for her family. And this time there would be no elder magic to sooth her.

Thinking of the child, Leo, and what was to come, Piper had absentmindedly walked to the office where Chris was living these days. She was about to open the door when it opened first and she crashed with someone who was actually leaving. The witch nearly fell, but a hand grabbed her in time.

"Piper? What are you doing here?"

ooOoo

Let's put a cliffhanger here (be thankful I didn't drop the chapter in this same spot) and go visit Paige and Phoebe who, by the way, weren't having any more success in their quest through the underground.  
They'd been walking around, kicking some asses and trying to sense the kid. Nothing worked and, although the witches were unaware of it, they crossed paths with a certain and all hated elder (whose name rhymed with... well, does not rhymes with _bastard_ but should) that was there looking for some demons for a secret project we would not ask about.

But Chris wasn't there either.

Where was he and why weren't they able to find him?

There's a long and a short answer to that.

Teen Chris would have probably told you the long one; with lots and lots of long words and incomprehensible stuff he'd learnt from aunt Paige. You'd be sleeping or having a headache by the time he'd simply finished the introduction.

He knew it, it was his way off explanations.

"Chris, why does your bedroom looks as if a horde of Tartarians had spend there the night?"

"You see, mum, I was working on that multidimensional spell aunt Paige want me to do for Wednesday and the hiperbolican wiccaning sphere got sucked into the multyfacial neutronical..."

Instead of "I forgot to clean it up."

"Chris, why did you came this late?"  
"See, mum,... the multfractional portals that interconnect the threshold gates between the magical world and ours have had a sudden seizure on the bipolar miliplanes of..."  
Instead of "I was talking with my friends".

Unfortunately, sometimes you just got THE answer...

"Chris, I don't give a damn about multiultradimensional magicogenetically altered proteins evolving in spite of whatever long word you want to introduce here... I want that herd of teddy bears OUT of my home!"

This was a pointless remark about Chris's young years that I thought you'd like to know, just to demonstrate that he was a kid as normal as any other, except for the fact that his excuses were far more elaborated.

Oh, and that he orbed and practiced magic but hey! Who doesn't?

Well, about Chris, at last let's say that teen Chris was in the city; he'd been wandering around having hell of a tantrum for some time.  
He'd even scared to death a thieve that tried to mug him by yelling at the top of his lungs incoherencies in the line of "HOW DARE SHE? HOW DARE SHE? WHAT THE HELL DOES 'MISTAKE' MEAN?" while the poor young mugger ran for his live... However, now he was in the only place in the entire city where you could neither be sensed, nor scryed, nor felt, nor any other kind of similar power.

That place being, of course, Victor's apartment, where he was half naked, completely covered by lots of blankets, on the coach.

He hadn't gone to the apartment on purpose. Actually, he was lost in the city and soaked to the bone... so he'd  
orbed away again and his body, or his powers, or maybe his mind, had taken him to the only safe place he knew:  
Granddad's apartment. Where he'd taken off his wet clothes, fetched some blankets and stumbled to the coach.

He loved to sleep on that coach, it was warm and comfortable. He would just rest there for a couple of Zzzzzzzzz.  
Fortunately, he didn't snore.

ooOoo

Let's leave Chris sleeping, god knows the kid is exhausted, and go back to that little cliffhanger we had some minutes ago.  
Piper was in P3, nearly falling over when someone grabbed her.

The witch raised her eyes, startled, ready to blast whoever was there, and found Chris. A whole grown up Chris, looking at her, puzzled at first and than worried. The young man looked at the watch in his wrist.  
"It's been only a couple hours since the demon left, but you girls shouldn't be going around alone." He said, reproachfully. "And you've just been de-demonized only a little while ago, you especially shouldn't be going around, period..."

"Not in you state", added the half whiteligher, taking a new sip of his coffee. He was starving, yet unwilling to cook, so coffee would have to do the trick.

"Not in my state", Piper repeated, wondering how the timeline obsessed freak would react if he were to learn about her finding about her pregnancy... from him.

But that would mean telling him about those alternate versions that had been occurring because of their spell. Which, from what Paige said, he didn't know about. She suspected it wasn't exactly the best moment to do so.

"I just came to find something." She explained, not exactly lying."The... agenda... the agenda of the bands... I have to find a band for Friday."

Chris looked around.  
"Well, it wouldn't be in here..." he signaled the little room he called home this days.

"No, it wouldn't, but I... er... I thought you would be here."

"Really?" Chris cocked his head with a small frown, Piper wondered how much he knew and how much she could say without giving anything away.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you." Yet she didn't know what to say, she'd yelled at the other Chris not this one. And her intention was plainly of dragging this one home in order to talk to the other one if he changed again. And that last thought just made no sense at all.

"About what?" the young man looked pretty pissed, not too willing to talk with her. And she couldn't blame him; after all, she'd actually yelled at him, she'd even slapped him (not that she was feeling particularly guilty of the last part, he'd more than deserved that).

The witch sighed soundlessly, without knowing the whole true about what was happening and Chris being so secretive of his ways and demeanors, talk to him was like trying to play cards with a band in her eyes.

"Look, Piper," Chris interrupted her thoughts "...I know you may wanna know where Wyatt is, yet I can't tell you, ok? Any minute now you could be possessed again and then you'd know where he is and he'd be in danger..."

That comment broke her current chain of thoughts and she failed at repressing a smile.  
"It's not that, Chris... I... look, there's lots of things I must tell you, ok?" What the hell, she finally decided, let's play for the true. "We... I... all of us have made lots of mistakes, and... I'm sorry..."

Chris raised his eye brows curiously, his head still tilted.

"What?"

"I'm sorry... Chris, even if I had my reasons, even if I was worried for Wyatt... I've done and I've said things I should not have done."

The half witch made a step backwards, glaring although it didn't looked like he was glaring at her, but simply glaring.  
"So you know... is it? You know?"

"What? Chris, wh...what?" Piper tried to replay her words, wondering what she'd said wrong this time. Was Chris talking about her pregnancy? But it made no sense.

"Son of a bitch! I knew he wouldn't keep his mouth closed!" The young man growled, not really yelling but looking as if he was about to do so any minute now. "Shit!"

"Chris, what are you talking about? What's that I can't know? What is it?"

"Why did you apologized?... He told you, didn't he? One damn thing I ever asked him to do... one damn thing and he screws it up, that's just SO typical..."

"Hey hey hey hey hey!" Piper stopped him, raising her hands. "I'm so sorry my apologizes are such a drama for you... what am I supposed to know?"

"What? You know what I mean!"

"No I don't!"

"Sure you do, he told you and now you're feeling sorry, that's why you're here!"

"Chris, what are you talking about?"

"About what Leo told you!"

"What?"

"You know!"

"I don't, Leo didn't tell me anything... In fact, Paige said I should know something yet Leo said I shouldn't know and now I don't know what I'm supposed to know because they don't wanted me to know what they know!"

"... and I'm growing a headache over that sentence..." Chris stated, trying to reconstruct what he'd heard and discover if Piper had been saying that she knew or that she didn't.

Piper snorted.

"Then the both of us will be having one."

Chris became concerned.  
"You don't feel well?" he asked, sounding worried. "No, of course you don't. I am such an idiot, you were just possessed and I'm here, acting like a stupid brat... Come on, do you want me to orb you home?"

"No." she answered. Although her intention was to bring him to the manor, she was feeling far more comfortable at P3  
than she'd felt at home. The place was, after all, hers. "I'm fine, but I'd like to sit for a while... do you want to accompany me? I think I may have some pre-cooked food in the bureau, and you should eat something else than just that coffee."

"I'm alright." He answered, sulking again. "Look, I have to go follow some leads in the underworld, you sure you'll be fine?"

"Don't." The witch grabbed him by the sleeve. "Stay a little while, will you?"

ooOoo

The thing, one could only assume it was a demon by the fact that it was actually in the underground and moving of it's own will, tried to grab Phoebe. She kicked it hard in the... somewhere… and did a complicate movement that efficiently threw it across the cave and into a wall. It crashed and fell, apparently broken or dead. It was the last one so Paige approached it's remains.

It looked pretty much like a bed side table.

It was square and not very tall and it's skin looked like wood. It had a drawer and even a small light lamp above a green and blue old tablecloth. It also had big teeth inside the drawer-like mouth and a single eye in the lamp prosthesis.

"This is gross..." the witch stated, kicking it for the last time.

They'd been feeling for Chris for nearly an hour now and they'd had no clue yet. She could sense him in the underworld, but he kept orbing around every few seconds, leaving a horrible mess behind.

"Did you see this?" Phoebe complained, looking around. There were nearly fifteen of those demons splashed around... and they'd only killed six or seven, the rest where already part of the surroundings when they'd arrived.  
And those hadn't been the first ones.  
He'd done so with the XXX demons, the Ydfurtgh demons, the Koko demons, and a couple of new species they'd never faced before, and would probably never face again.

"The boy is doing a hell of a job here..."

"Sure... but we'll better find him before one of those demons around gets a lucky shot and kills him..." Paige grabbed her sister and orbed one more time. She hoped that the demons her nephew was leading them to would at least have something resembling an ass to kick.

They did. They were big and blue and there was, indeed, an ass they could kick. They had two in fact... one of which was on the head and the other on the... well, it was the ass.

And Chris was still there, fighting one of them with something similar to a club and trying to dodge the claws of the rest. He managed to do so a couple of times, but finally one of the creatures got to him, slashing the half witch in the back. Chris yelled in pain and turned to face the demon, but then the one he'd been fighting attacked.

"Club!" Paige yelled while running, the weapon orbed to her in time so she could hit the foresaid demon in the head.

The... let's call it Blue demon… turned around with a yell of rage and tried to slash her. Luckily for Paige, Phoebe had managed to get there in time and kick the beast hard enough to send it away.  
Without even stopping, the Charmed witch whirled around, grabbing her sister's club ready to face the other demon that had been attacking Chris. But she was too late, for the young man had already taken care of the demon and was, in fact, swinging to punch her.

Phoebe barely ducked in time.

"Are you out of your mind, young man!" The witch took two steps backwards, trying to maintain some distance between herself and her nephew, thinking that he was probably too worked up with the fight to notice her.

She quickly found out that it was not the case. Chris, the one in his late teens, was looking at her, face full of recognition and with a wild smile in his face.

"Come come, auntie... now YOU are backing away from ME?" he let out a rough laugh. "How wrong is that."

"Let's make a deal..." she smiled trying to put him at ease. "You stop trying to hit me, I'll stay still."

Without warning, the half-witch took another swing.

Phoebe ducked again.

He was good. She was better… but he was good.

And she would not be able to keep avoiding him forever.

A few steps to the right.

"C'mon, Chris... let's get to the core of this. Why are you so mad at us? I mean, I could understand you getting mad at Paige... but me? I must be something like the super aunt, you can't be mad at me."

Chris followed her, not seeing the Blue demon that would have slaughtered him if a really big rock hadn't orbed in top of it a couple of seconds before it's attack. Either young man didn't noticed it, or didn't care.

"I'm not mad at you..." he finally answered.

"You sure? Because it looks as if you are..."

"I'm not mad at you because you're not here."

With a wave of his hand, a really big rock crossed the cave-like chamber they were in, forcing Phoebe to levitate in order to avoid it. The moment her feet left the ground, Chris changed the direction of his tk wave and hit her.

Hard.

The witch barely managed to stay awake after crashing into the rocky cave walls.

ooOoo

Leo orbed to the bridge in the cascading rain, ready to start sensing any minute now. Ready... yet it proved itself unnecessary, for even before he stood still and let his elder powers flow a clear and slightly panicked voice filled his head.

"WYATT!"

It wasn't a message meant for him.

"WY! PLEASE!"

It was meant for someone else... someone who couldn't answer it.

"WY? WY?"

Someone who had redirected it to him.

Leo orbed away from the bridge, to the root of the plea, and was startled when he found himself in the middle of the street. In fact, barely a few corners away from the manor.

Sitting on the stairs that lead to some old long abandoned garden was Chris, with his knees up to his chest and his arms wrapped around the legs. Wet like if he'd just jumped into a pool, he was unsuccessfully trying to suppress the tears that were falling from his big bright eyes.

"Chris!" the elder ran to his son, and was puzzled when he found that there was a grating separating them. The rain had practically made it invisible, so he accidentally hit it, swearing loud.

Startled the kid, that hadn't heard him due to the rain, looked up.  
"Dad?"

"Chris? Are you... are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened?"

"You hit the grating..." the kid said, with a smirk. "You said shit. Mom said that if we ever learned another swa... swe... swear word from any of our family members she'd curse them into the underworld. She was talking about the aunts, though."

The elder saw that the kid wasn't crying anymore and relaxed knowing that he'd probably just been scared from waking in such weird place.

"Did she?" he asked, trying to soothe Chris, chatting conversationally.

"Yep... she was very angry because Wyatt had said 's-...s-son of a witch'... I think... although it doesn't make any sense, does it? I mean, mum's a witch... what's bad about it?"

Not really knowing what to answer to that, the elder simply shrugged.

"Did you hear him saying that?"

There was a mischievous smile now upon Chris' face.  
"He taught it to me, said that he'd curse me a couple of rabbit ears if I ever told mum I'd learnt it from him... then the next day he just said it in front of her... I don't think he realized what he was saying until he'd already said it... I mean, we were watching a soccer game and the umpire did something wrong, I'm not sure of what, and then he yelled that to the tv... "

"And all hell went loose... your mum should have been very, very, very upset at him..."

Chris nodded, still puzzled at the memory and a little relieved, as every sibling ever is, that the yelling hadn't been directed at him.

"Was I annoyed too?" Leo was slightly anxious to hear about him from this Chris, the only one that didn't seemed to loathe him. Yet the second he'd said it, Chris frowned a cute frown and looked a little upset.

"You weren't there." He explained. "You were doing elderly things..."

Leo felt a pang of guilty and felt the necessity to explain himself.

"There must have been some kind of emer..."

"There's always an emergency." The kid replied not looking upset or angry, just sad. Mournful, if it hadn't been such a wrong feeling for a little kid.

It must have been hard, the elder had to admit, he'd probably had to leave more than once in the middle of something more or less important every now and then. Yet Chris had to understand that there were...  
"The innocents..."

But the look on the kids face made it too hard for him to finish the sentence.

"It was my birthday. You promised."

"I'm sorry." There's was nothing else to say.

Again, Chris shrugged with a faked acceptance that Victor would have recognized it as the one you should beware in the Halliwell saga faces and gestures.

"Don't be," he told Leo. "You finally managed to stay with us for a whole game like three months later. You even took us to the stadium to see it and bought us coke and caps."

"It sounds like fun." The elder felt his pang of guilty sooth a little.

"It was Wyatt's birthday."

Leo knew then that he hadn't been feeling guilty. Guilt was the sudden and heavy weight of repentance that the grief in Chris's voice suddenly dropped on his soul.

He could barely understand where that feeling came from, which were his exact sins? How could the failure of broking a promise develop into his all-grown-up son's hatred for him?

How many promises had he broken?

He'd thought that Chris was angry with him because he'd done something.

Something that he could signal, something that he could write down so he'd remember and avoid in the future.

But it looked like the main problem that Chris had with him as a father was, basically, that Leo wasn't a very good one.

And that wasn't something you could accomplish in a one time, big mistake.  
That demanded time, that demanded dedication... that demanded lots and lots of broken promises.

Like a whole young live of them.

And that wasn't something you couldn't fix with an 'I'm sorry', or with a couple of nice words and the woe to never ever do it again.

He should just grab him and orb him to Piper; she'd know what to say. Or maybe Paige and Phoebe, at least until he changed into some Chris that wouldn't tell her the truth the moment he saw her.

Maybe he should let someone else with some actual skills for this kind of things, someone that could handle the situation.  
Someone to explain to him that he wasn't really a bad guy, that he had responsibilities, that... the elder stopped his chain of thoughts, heeding how wrong they were, realizing how lame they sounded even in his own head.

Leo climbed over and dropped himself to the other side of the grating, guessing that orbing may not be the right thing to do right then.

Silent, he sat next to his son, using his jacket to cover the kid from the rain as much as possible.

Chris looked at him, less sad and more startled.

"So... do you mind telling me how you got yourself in this side of the granting?"

* * *

Ok so... what do you think? Harakiri for me? Or a new opportunity... you don't really have to be honest with the answer... lie to me.

I won't swear again, because I hate breaking my woes, but I'll try my best to have this updated soon...


	15. Conversations

**Heeeelloooo!**

**As I said, I've updated this earlier that what I though I would but later than what I should. Sorry!**

**Charmed is not mine, nor is any of the chracters in this story ( none but the _SoulShadow_ who I'm growing rather attached to and the herds of Teddy Bears. )**

**I want to thank my beta who's lovewly and without who I wouldn't even be posting because someone would have cursed my ass six feet undergroundm for my constant slaughter of the english language which, I may say, happens to be one of those things I'm glad I've (well, I like how english sounds)... other itmes in that list are my hability to dismantle computers (even if when I rebuild them there's usually a couple of pieces that never find their right place), picklocking (although I'm still in the small locks category so feel free in your houses), and twist my hand 360 degrees.**

**Now, in none related news, I love aaaaall my reviewers, those news, and those who still remembered me. You all flattered me so much my head growed like a balloon and ow I'm stuck in my bedroom. May I say how much I like when I have lots of long reviews?**

**COOKIES for every one!**

**MerlinHalliwell: **Confused? Good, that was the intention And, no, there aren't two Chris'... at this moment there are three.

**LilyEvansPotterBlack:** It's not you, there are lots and lots of Chris', they were on sale, so I put all I could in the fic... I can help the rambling, it's in my genetics.

**Kilikapele:** I'm glad to see you're still here That sentence about whate Piper knows and doesn't knows of what she knows... I just wrote it half absentmindly, and then read it... and laughed. As lame as it is to laugh of ones own jokes... TT I must say that I'm very proud of it.

**Icantthinkofanick:** I love when you say that you think that Truth is funny... I mean, your story just gets me laughing my head off half the time (and all angsty the other half) so it flatters me. The think with bloody... well, I love that word (I'm used on reading british english), but as my beta said is more a british than an american word, and Chris is not british, so it sounded weird... I just decided to concentrate all the bloodying in one sentence.

It's not that I don't like Penny. She had to be tough, so she was the toughest ever... but I think that living with her must be hell. And yes, I do like Victor... he is cute.

And about all the Chris' in the scene... c'mon, if I tell you now... what fun will be in reading the fic? Plus I still have to center my ideas about it.

And yes, Leo/kidChris scene was meant to be diabetical sugary cute.

**Queen of the elven city:** Hum... although I'm happy you reviewed the story... I'm afraid I don't get it TT

**NightOwl123:** thanks

**VanillaChicky:** I'm glad the rambling makes you laugh, my friends just find it annoying after a couple of minutes U So you like 4 Chris in the story... wait till I bring the jubilated one... only kidding (possibly). The main problem was that I liked the three of them so it was hard to decide who to make appear. Here you have it, an update plus some Chris'... sorry for not having updated earlier. Problems a little more serious than common earth destruction went in the way, but for what's worth, next chapter is already in my beta's hands.

**Bemill**: Thanks! Glad you liked it!

**Wonder:** Hi! I think that my mail is somewhere in my user info page, or artist info paige... wold you care to write me down what do you thing is going to happen? I'm just dying of curiosity since I read your review... U

**Terra Fea:**

1.- De nada!

2.- Hhehehe, confusion is good, and you're right with your counting... plus the teenager sleeping in Victor's apartment.

3.- Where has grown up Chris been? That, dear Horatio, is the question... more or less... although not exactly the correct one.

4.- Yes it was a huge slip, but in the heat of a discussion Chris could have confessed killing Kennedy and no one would have noticed.

5.- Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar... I will remember that word forever

6.- Here's your cal free cookie.  O

**Ennui deMorte:** Thanks! And, again (everybody is asking the same) about Chris spliting in four... everything will be revealed at it's due time (waves her han in a jedi way). There's a piece from Wyatt point view but You won't find it until the next chapter. Now the kid is soundly sleeping does this expression even exists?.

**Lookingforsomehing:** I asked that to myself more than once... probably it was that or having him sleeping in the coach.

**Jaspis:** A five year old would handle the whole Chris hates Leo more realistically... TT That part in the stairs is one of my faveourits. It says "Chris in his late teens is a psico!" with bright neon words. So the one of the funeral bouquet was you? I was away that weekend and you scared my parents to death. When I came back I had to go to the tanatorium and drag them back home... I just hide in the coffin and waited until the priest began to pray to open it, but I was s stuck inside so I began trashing around until it fell... dramatic, very dramatic...

**Bun2007:** Thanks. And yes, you're making sense, I think I answer that qüestion in this chapter.

**Rhia: **And a new one!

**Septdeneuf:** Thanks for coming back and reviewing! That was very sweet of you. And I'm glad you're liking it, I'm afraid sometimes that the plot has little sense or something (although my beta likes it, so I'm pretty happy) . Thanks for the tip, I'll try to remember it... I always have problems with the basic rules (and phrasal verbs!).

Different Chris' will meet... I'm just not telling you when XP. Thanks for reviewing!

**Christine Marquez:** Here is the update, hope you like it.

**Fighting destiny:** Thanks!

**Here's the chapter, it's pretty shorter than usually, but I think that worth reading .**

* * *

Conversations.

-oOo

First there was pain, piercing pain in the back of her head that ached like hell and back. 

Then there was cold which made her guess the possibility of being dead. Although, when dead, it was known, you did not felt pain. Or maybe you did.

Then maybe she was dying.

That would explain the pain and the cold.

A voice made it's way through all of it, a voice and a light.

Was she supposed to go to the light? Or against the light?  
The light was growing brighter now, it looked appealing.

Someone was calling her, she could hear a voice.

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"Hey..."

Victor whirled around, dropping the coffee (with added whisky) he'd been drinking and practically jumped out of his own skin.

Chris was leaning on the doorframe with groggy eyes and a blanket around his shoulders. He hadn't been there two seconds ago.

"Chris? What are-?"

"...we doing here?" Chris asked to Leo, a mix of curiosity and amazement in his childish voice.

"You said you were hungry, didn't you?" Leo asked.

"Uh huh..." the kid nodded, looking around at what looked like the Palace of Waffles. The whole place seemed made of them... that's what heaven would be like.

A smile spread across the kid Chris's face in spite of him still being upset with Leo. The smile flickered when he realized what his dad was doing again... As if doing something amazing once every now and then would erase the rest, and that wasn't right.

Chris was not really sure of why it wasn't right, but deep inside it hurt him more than the deceptions.

But... but Chris was still a kid and dad was there, and the place was amazing... better bury that grief deep inside, better forget about it than dwell with it.  
Better get to have some quality time, like Wyatt liked to call it.

Quality time and waffles.

Leo placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. "So should we-?"

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...stay a little while?

And what was he supposed to do then?

Bi would have said that he was supposed to turn around and get the hell out of there; Victor would have told him to stay, to get as much as he could of that moment that would never repeat itself.

For once, he heeded Victor and stood, smiling awkwardly at her. He'd just made such a fool of himself, she'd probably be planning on sending him to an asylum. Some closed room with a small shut window; Somewhere where dreams are real and are called madness, while reality is white and clean and the only colors are those of the pills that made the madness disappear into a dream for a short time.

And he was loosing grip of reality again, probably due to the stress and the lack of sleep.

Something growled strong enough to put Piper on guard, raising her hands ready to blast and looking at him first with surprise and then with a silly grin.

Maybe he was just hungry.

His mother... no, don't go there... the Charmed one laughed and he joined her in a way that was so easy, that felt so good, that Chris felt like crying. Not knowing if he would be able to hide his feelings, Chris turned around and grabbed the first thing he saw, his old blue sweater, and pulled it over his head.

"I'm sorry for Wyatt..." he managed to say with his head buried in spoiled wool and his voice muffled. "...but it's important ..."

"He is with Victor, Chris, I know..." She could have lied, maybe should have... but there were already too many lies at that moment. Besides, the sight of Chris' head appearing through he neck hole of the sweater, with the hair completely disheveled and a look of utter shock on the face was priceless.

"Nah... no way... " He gave a nervous laugh. "That's ridiculous... Why would he be with-?"

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"...Victor?" His voice was slightly shaky and filled with fatigue when he asked for his grandpa's attention, like if he wasn't really awake at all. "Is... Is mu... Piper okay?"

"She's fine."

For seconds, neither of them said anything. Victor looked at the kid trying to decide what to do while Chris' mind began unfolding the last events in his foggy memory.  
It took a heartbeat for his mind to wake up, to remember. A heartbeat for his groggy eyes to turn cold and angry, hiding the pain through layers of stubbornness.

He grinned and talked lightly. "...of course she's fine... she's just pregnant. Probably looking for an abortion clinic right now."

"That's not fair, Chris... your mother wouldn't do that."

The kid snorted."Yeah, because the fact that I was born because mum wouldn't abort is far better."

Victor snorted back; he couldn't help it. The kid had this sarcastic aura all around him.

"What's so funny?" Chris, however, hadn't thought there was anything to laugh about.

The older man cocked his head.

"You're some drama queen-"

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"... ain't you?"

"I'm not a drama queen..." Phoebe complained. "It hurts."

Finally, the light had happened to be a lantern; and the voice, her sister who hadn't found a better way to wake her up than to slap her repeatedly.

"Well, we don't have a handy whitelighter at the moment...," Paige informed her, "not that ours can heal, anyway... so you'll have to content with an aspirin, dry "

The empath sighed, grumpy.

"Aspirin? I'm not sure it would do any-"

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"...good." Piper commented, looking at the pre-cooked rice she'd just put in the microwave and waiting for the bell to announce that the food was ready. She tried to ignore how Chris was looking intently at her belly.

At least she'd managed to convince him to eat something, right after the shortest panic attack she'd even seen. For a second it had looked like if Chris was going to loose it, but then he'd just breathed slowly and nodded a little weakly, looking just too tired to really care.

That's what had made her decide to insist upon feeding him a little, her cocky neurotic whitelighter was not one to give up just because he was tired. Plus she was still feeling guilty for all the previous yelling.

"I hope you like Chinese, pre-cooked food..." she said, trying to break the silence.

The half-whitelighter nodded absentmindedly and looked at the microwave oven with concern.

Wouldn't the waves be negative for mini-mini-mini-bean shaped-him?

"Do you want something to drink?" The witch asked, opening the small fridge.

"Sure..."   
What would it feel like to be inside a placenta? Swimming in amniotic liquid.

"Damn..." The Charmed one looked at the small, mostly vacant shelves. "Someone's been sneaking in my fridge."

"Yeah...?"   
Was it swimming or floating? Whatever it was, it was gross and slimy; he'd seen it in an educative video at school and it had looked very slimy.

"I'm sure that is one of my sisters... why wouldn't they go to the bar?"

"-"

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"Aha..." Was Leo's answer to what Chris had been telling him, something about what they'd learned in history last week.

The kid had been eating waffles non-stop for the past thirty minutes and the elder was wondering how was he able to eat and talk without choking or spiting the food.

He also marveled at his ability to jump from a subject to subject without them having any kind of connection.

"... so the thing is that aunt Paige told us that there was no way it would work because of the par--- parame-tri-cal field force around the objects,.. buuuuuut..." the kid grinned, rising a finger "there's this book in the library that says that..."

He was finding it hard to follow his train of thoughts.

"... and then the hero battled the man in black and found that it was-"

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"... his father."

"I don't know Paige... but Chris has his reasons, and Leo doesn't wants us to tell..."

The half-whitelighter raised a sarcastic brow. "Don't go all 'sense and sensibility' on me, sister... you're dying to tell Piper the truth."

"God yes... " Was the immediate response. "It's like my head is going to blow up. But..."

Paige interrupted her. "Ye I know... we can't spill the beans for now, I get it..."

Phoebe nodded with a pout and looked around, really looked around, for the first time since she woke up. They were still underground, and Chris was there, unconscious and with a makeshift bandage in the front.

"He was bleeding..." her sister explained.

"Damn... so a demon got to him..."

"Not really... well, yes, but it was a minor injury." Paige signaled next to the future witch and Phoebe saw a very heavy looking rock. "The thing is that he was going to kill you so I had to knock him out -"

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"Excuse me?" The affronted young teen glared at his grandfather. "She says I'm a mistake and I AM the drama queen?"

Victor stared at him for a minute and decided to drop the subject for now.  
"Come on... I'll cook you something... and you may want to put some clothes in that skinny body before you get sick. There's some old sweaters and trousers in the closet, in my bedroom."

The kid looked at himself and then at the blanket he had around his shoulders and turned around, heading for the bedroom.

"Do you prefer milk or-?"

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"... juice? Because there's nothing else in here..." Piper signaled the nearly empty fridge with an apologetic gesture that Chris didn't seemed to heed.

"Whatever..."  
What size would he be right now? Smaller than a nail?

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Sure."  
Barely a week... far smaller than that...

"You know, I'm planning on transforming P3 into a Japanese tea saloon..."

"What a great idea..."  
And where was his soul? With himself? Or there inside? Maybe it was split...

"The elders said that now whitelighters have to wear the golden gowns too..."

"Really?"

Suddenly he realized something distressful... fetuses were female until the... hum... well until some months of pregnancy.

He was a she right now.

Piper grabbed the 'Tabasco' sauce, fuming for the lack of attention.

"Do you think a half a bottle of this in you breakfast/lunch/dinner-?"

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"...will do?"

Chris claimed his grandpa's attention from the kitchen's door. Victor raised his head from the journal he was re-reading and looked at him.  
"Took you long enough..."

The kid shrugged, his little search for the right bedroom had been more difficult than foreseen.  
You see, when bored, Victor would rearrange the whole apartment and change the place of things, thing like tables, plants, and entire rooms. He'd even changed the place of the toilet once, which caused what his grandsons  
had come to call 'The Grandpa's Small Universal Deluge'.

So looking for something like a closet was a whole quest by itself.

What? His grandfather not being magical doesn't make him normal.

Chris entered the kitchen and sat down, allowing Victor to clearly see the sweater he was wearing.  
"I have like four old sweaters... you had to pick the new one?" The man asked him with curiosity, while turning the microwave oven, which he'd set milk inside of, on. Chris frowned, looked at the sweater, and back up at his grandfather, mildly uneasy.

"I like this sweater..."

The young witch caressed the blue fabric and draw a small smile, the material was softer; obviously since sweater was new now. But in the future he'd ore it so much that grandpa had finally given it to him for his last birthday.

He looked at Victor again with a small pout.

"But I can pick an older one if you want..." Chris continued pouting and Victor could swear that the kid eyes were growing.

"Does that really work in the future?"

The microwave countdown reached it's zeros.

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_PING!_

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"Can I ask you a question?" Piper questioned, grabbing the now cooked food from the small microwave oven she had in her office and closing it's door.

"Of course."  
Well, not a she, she, of course. And not that he thought that being a girl was something that bad. He'd been a girl once, in fact, and it went pretty well except for the menstruation bit. It's just that he had grown attached to his penis over the years.

"I need you to be honest with me. No games, no running away. Just the truth."

"Yeah."  
Diapers! He'd not thought of diapers! He wasn't sure if he'd be able to cope with Aunt Phoebe's jokes if she ever changed his diapers with him around.

"Are you Paige's son?"

"Aha" Was what Chris' mind, set in that special state that children could reach with their parents, where you only listened enough to keep the conversation going at the sounds of 'yeah', 'sure' and 'of course' while thinking in more important things.

Like waffles.

However, he had enough presence of mind to listen to the last words and snapped out of it so fast that, had he'd been in the real world, he'd left his shadow behind.

"I'm sorry?"

"It's ok... I mean, I actually thought of this long ago, but at the time it was just a silly theory..."

"Wh... What?"

"Well... you're a part whitelighter just like her. " Piper went on, completely oblivious of Chris's eyes popping out of their holes and bouncing around the room until Chris managed to get them back in their place. "I suppose you didn't want me to know that you actually knew my children, did you? Neither did you want your mother to know about you, of course... there's all this future crap to take care of. Plus, you have your grandma eyes."

Chris blinked.

"Oh... er... -"

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"Oh!" Phoebe complained while getting up, a hand in her head. " My head..."

"You should stay still a little while, dear... your head it's been hit one too many times today."

"Wish I could... but it's a matter of time until a new demon appears and..."

Something came flying across the cave and crashed into the wall like two feet from them.

"Me and my mouth..." grumbled Phoebe getting to the ground again, some pixies playing drums in her head.

"You and your mouth..." agreed Paige, looking for the source of the attack. She saw that Chris was awake again and on his knees, unsuccessfully trying to get up while throwing at them whatever he thought could hurt them.

Phoebe dragged Paige behind the protection of a group of rocks.

"So you knocked him out, but didn't tie him up?"

Paige grimaced apologetically.

"Uh.-"

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"...oh!" Chris repeated, Piper's word slowly sinking in his overloaded brain."..."

"Er..." Innocence covering his features, Chris blinked at his granfather in confusion. "What are you talking about?" He blinked again. "Should I change the sweater?"

Two more blinks and Victor found himself shaking his head, a negation rolling off his tongue. He could barely manage to stop himself, take a deep breath, and let out a small laugh.

"You're good... you're really good. I thought that no one could ever pout better than your aunt... but you've mastered the big blinking eyes."

The kid's face changed back to normal, no pouts and no big eyes, just a cocky grin.

"She taught me... I just happened to surpass the master and get her title."

"Does it work? In the future, I mean."

"Of course it works!" Chris laughed again. "There's nothing I can't talk or pout aunt Paige into, it even works with aunt Phoebe... well, at least when I can duck her empath powers..."

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"Empath powers?" asked Leo, trying to understand his son's actual subject.

Chris nodded and went on about something related to a... a herd of teddy bears? The more the kid ate the faster he talked and gestured, so the more difficult it was to get and idea of what he was talking about. However, Leo had been learning lots of interesting stuff.

For a start, Piper, Chris's Piper, wouldn't be pleased of seeing them eating at such hours (It was around eight in  
the morning.) But that was okay because as he, being Leo, had insisted, it wouldn't be Chris's fault.

"It will be our secret." Leo'd joked, earning a curious glance.

"Secrets are good, they can be as useful as magic... even more. Or so Wy says." The kid had answered, suddenly serious, he was not sure if that was true. It sounded true, but in the way Wyatt said it... it also sounded kind of wrong.

The face lasted but a blink before he smiled again. "And so says a book in the school library!"

That was another thing, the school library was the size of the Athene's Acropolis and it's books priceless, or so his son had literally said.

Also, he learned that Chris liked to play basketball but not football, preferred spaghetti over macaroni, horror films over romance, cats over dogs, the Greeks over the Romans, batman over Superman, Indiana Jones over Lara Croft, Star Wars over every other film, the reruns of Scarecrow and Mrs.Queen over the reruns of 'Murder, She Wrote', Lord of the Rings over the second row of Star Wars films...

Oh, and by the way, Wyatt was the coolest being ever.

Sorry, waffles were the coolest things ever, but Wyatt was right behind them in the list.

"Can I have more-?"

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"...waffles? That's all you can think about right now? Waffles?"

Phoebe shrugged, covering her head to protect it.

"What can I say? I'm-"

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"...hungry."

Chris nodded at his granddad's statement with a small laugh.

"Yeah, I think I was starving-"

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"I'm sorry I didn't have..."

"... waffles..." Piper finally said, taking her own breakfast after the microwave went 'PING!' again. The witch looked at her half whitelighter who was staring at his rice like it was going to start singing and dancing any minute now.

"I can't eat waffles..." Chris managed to mumble. "At least I usually don't."

"So...?"

"So what?"

"Are you or are you not Paige's son?" but she wasn't actually asking, Chris knew, she'd already made her mind up to it.

"No, I'm not."

Piper shot him an 'I'm not buying it' look that Chris knew all to well.  
"C'mon, Chris... you can tell me, I know you're worried about the future and that stuff... but I won't tell her."

"Piper, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. It's the only logical answer I can think of."

Chris couldn't help himself.  
"THAT - is - the - ONLY - logical - answer - you - can - think - of? The - ONLY?"

"Yeah..." his mother answered with a hand on her belly. "How, if not, could you know how much about...?"

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"...the future of the Halliwell?"

"What?"

When everything had been eaten and cleaned up they sat again in the table, now with a new cup of coffee for Victor and a hot cocoa for the kid (because "you can pout all you want, kid, you're not getting coffee from me"). The older man felt like it was the moment to talk to his half grown nephew.

He repeated the question.

"What can you tell me about your family's future?"

"Nothing, future consequences... I'm..."

"...sorry, but maybe we should be going..." Leo suggested when Chris, who'd been growing restless for the last minutes, began playing drums with the long shake's spoon and the tissues box.

"Yeah! We should!" Chris jumped out of the chair and ran to the door and before running back. "Go where?"

"Go home."

"Great!" Chris ran again to the door, stopped again, and came back.

"Where's home?"

"What if I pay first and then we can orb- or- or-- " Leo looked uneasy at the waitress, but the woman hadn't heard him. She was patiently cursing the little cannonball of energy that was talking so loud at such hour in the morning.

"Orbing! Orbing Orb-b-b-b---orbita. The moon plays an orbit around the sun! And Leo means sun!" Chris yelled, starting to run around his father so fast Leo feared he'd travel to the past (again). The kid stopped in a halt. "No! The earth is orbiting around the sun, so I'm the..."

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"Earth to Chris!" Piper snapped her fingers a few inches away of his face. Her nephew had been motionless for a whole minute now, his face blank, his mouth gaping forming sounds that would never get to real words. "C'mon... it's not that bad that I know, isn't it?"

If there was a contest of awkward moments, I'd win it, Chris thought.

Mum was staring.

Piper! Aunt Piper (and that was pretty funny) was staring at him, waiting for an answer. Chris pulled all his emotions aside and stood up, acting his self cool again.

"Look, Piper... and try to read my lips as I talk... I -AM-NOT-YOUR-NEPHEW."

Piper sighed and shrugged in a very 'have it your way' manner.

"Ok... of course, whatever you say." She said, very slow and with a blink. "You're not my nephew."

Chris tiny self (that you will probably remember from earlier editions) tried to say something but found himself as speechless as Chris himself was. Finally, he got up and began crashing it's tiny little head in the wall of the cavernous and very empty space that was Chris's mind right to that moment. It echoed.

"Way to go, Chris... way to go..." the young man whispered to himself while his mother, recently self declared aunt, looked in the table drawer's, probably looking for her agenda or a t-shirt saying: 'I'm the head of a very dysfunctional family'.

Piper retrieved her agenda from the drawer and smiled at him in a knowingly way. '_I know your secret,..._' her face was saying '_... but I won't tell anyone_'.

"Here it is." She showed him the agenda.

"Yeah... I see..." he answered, his face saying _'Note to mini-self: Don't inherit mum deduction skills_'.

"Maybe I better call them from..."

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"...home, it feels like home..." Chris admitted to Victor's questioning look. "... only that it doesn't...""

"Because they don't know you?" the man asked with concern, he'd finally managed to get Chris to talk if not about the future, at least about how he was handling it.

"Yeah... I mean, it's not just who I am, but how I am... and ... all this little things..."

"Like you being Piper's son..."

Chris froze dead for a second and sighed.  
"That obvious?"

"Let's say that your older self must be better hiding things than you if he'd come this far without them noticing..."

"I'm so going to kill myself..."

"So... about it being weird... what happened with your mum..." Chris raised a finger. "Let's not talk about my mum right now, ok? Because I know what you'll tell me, and I know you'll be telling the truth and it will probably make lots of sense once I'm over my puberty... but right now it doesn't and hurts in layers I don't think you'd understand..."

"Try me."

"I told you I can't talk about the future." Chris tried to get off it in the easy way.

"But you'd be talking about yourself, not about the..."

"Just forget it, Victor, ok?"

"Chris, you must talk about this with someone... what she said, she didn't meant it..."

Chris sighed dramatically. "Ok, you're right, she didn't mean it, Piper's glad she's p... happy now? I'm happy, I'm cool."

"The hell you're cool, at least if not with me, talk about it with Leo?"

"I am not talking about this with anyone, Victor, and less of all with dad... plus there's nothing to talk about, I'm fine." Chris put on a big smile. "See? Cool."

Victor shook his head. No, it wasn't cool, he could see the boy growing agitated by the minute.

"I'm not asking you to forget what she said right away, but at least you could..."

"Oh c'mon grandpa! Just drop it, I don't want to talk about it..."

"But it's important!"

"No, it's not, it's meaningless... it's you who's giving too much credit to it..."

"I know you're..."

"Victor, you don't know a shit!"

"Then tell me!"

"NO!"

"But why..."

"BECAUSE SHE IS NOT DYING!"

Words filled the room and thickened the air so for a second none of them could talk nor breath.

"What?" Victor heard the word before realising he'd said it.

Chris saw how understanding settled in the mans eyes and cursed himself.

"I mean.. will be... I mean... Oh,-"

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"Crap!" Phoebe swore as one of the blue demons, that hadn't been vanquished but knocked away, began to stir and to get up. "Twice crap!" She added as Chris grabbed the critter and threw it at them.

"I think that, since we've already found Chris we should call Piper and Leo!" Paige suggested.

"What? You kidding me? He'd kill Leo in the spot."

"Leo's and elder, he can't die..." the youngest charmed pointed out.

"That won't stop Chris from trying... better calm him down somehow before."

"Well, you're the advice columnist, ain't you? Go advice him into surrendering."

"Maybe I will..." Phoebe answered, but instead of doing so Paige saw her lick her lips and begin mumbling in whispers.

A big something went flying towards them.

"Thing!" the younger witch yelled, and it orbed away. "The more I use my powers..." she told her sister who, in fact, wasn't listening. "... the more I think that it doesn't really matter what I yell while I'm actually picturing -

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"IT, It, is just an awesome film!" Chris told Leo, with a new and sudden change of conversation. For the latest minutes, Leo'd been more and more concerned about his son apparent lack of attention span.

"Which one?"

"IT! IT it's a film... and it has evil clowns... Wyatt once made a clown disappear from his birthday party because he thought it was a demon, you know? But that was long ago, even before I started talking. One of the first things I said was 'give me more potatoes', or so mum says, but it's weird because kids don't usually say that... I like potatoes..."

And while talking, Chris wouldn't stop bouncing up and down, up and down, up and down, and the whirling and climbing every single climbable object he could find. Leo' worried that Chris was going to fall any minute now and break his skull, but no matter how much he tried to keep track of him and bring him down, the moment he'd put the kid in the floor, Chris would be climbing something else without ever stopping the talking.

Leo did not know if he had to be worried or what... up until, in the middle of the explanation of how he was planning a spell that would give life to his teddy bear, the kid bent down and began to throw up all his breakfast.

And this, my friends, is how a suddenly very disturbed and scared Leo learnt of sugar highs and why one should never allow Chris to more than one waffle at a time.

Of course, he actually realized it later, when looking at the whole night with some distance. That very moment the elder was frantic trying to sooth the kid, frustration getting the better of him when he noticed that there was some people in the streets, heading to their jobs, probably. No way he could us his power there... The man grabbed Chris, and ran out of there, right to an alley between two houses.

Checking he was alone Leo orbed inside the garden of one of the houses, in the front porch he'd seen a cartel saying that it was in sale, so nobody ought to be there.

The elder orbed into the house and placed a hand on his son's belly, healing him, breathing easier when Chris's green face went all healthy again.

"Are you feeling better now?"

Chris nodded with a small smile, when actually he was feeling still a little lightheaded, plus he was pretty sure that mum would not be happy... She'd told him more than once that he shouldn't eat that much sweet or he would get hyper and then sick. In fact she hardly allowed him any sweets since last time he got sick in class and puked all over the place courtesy of some other kid birthday sweets.

Ok, c'mon... who's never tricked one parent to do what the other didn't allowed?

Plus dad had gotten pretty worried... he maybe should have told him, the kid thought with a pang of guilt.

HE should have known, a part deep inside him retorted.

HE is your father, so HE should have known.

Let him get worried, then maybe HE won't forget next time.

And it was a mean voice that reminded him of Wyatt's, which was disturbing.

"I'm ok, dad..." he answered finally. "Just got sick..." Leo looked at him worried, but Chris didn't actually tell him about all the sweets affair. Mean or not, Wyatt's words were still going around in his head.

Dad hugged him again.  
"You..."

xxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxx

"... worried me." Paige told her sister once Phoebe finally snapped out of his self induced trance.

"Sorry, I was thinking..."

"Thinking of what..."

"Of my next advice." The empath answered getting up and reciting:

_Hold your fear and unleash your heart,  
Get a grip, and you'll can see straight,  
So even in the darkest night,  
Friends from foes you'll tell apart._


	16. Me, myself and all those doubles

Hey!

Two weeks aprox., not that bad for my records!

Here's a new chapter, all brand and new, and all for you.

Signalling around

There's also some tea and orange juice in the tables at the back of the room. The fic service will be serving light appetizers in no time consisting of both, sweet and sweeter food.

The fic guest highly recommends the cookies specially made by Chris, but also warns that it was Psico Chris and that he was singing a rather disturbing song slightly related to that of the 'The sound of music' movie... the fic management does not make themselves responsibles of any organic or non organic ingredient that may have accidentally or not so accidentally fallen into the bowl.

The answers to the reviews are at the bottom because the occupied to much space.

Here it goes:

Chapter 16: A new hope.

(Just so you know, it's a Star Wars reference, there's no such a thing like hope in this chapter...)

**Lately:**

"_Victor, you don't know a shit!"_

"_Then tell me!"_

"_NO!"_

_"But why..."_

_"BECAUSE SHE IS NOT DYING!"_

_Words filled the room and thickened the air so for a second none of them could talk nor breath._

_"What?" Victor heard the word before realising he'd said it._

_Chris saw how understanding settled in the mans eyes and cursed himself._

_"I mean.. will be... I mean... Oh,-"_

_**-oOo-**_

_Piper retrieved her agenda from the drawer and smiled at him in a knowingly way. 'I know your secret,...' her face was saying '... but I won't tell anyone'._

_"Here it is." She showed him the agenda._

_"Yeah... I see..." he answered, his face saying 'Note to mini-self: Don't inherit mum deduction skills'._

_"Maybe I better call them from..._

_**-oOo-**_

_"I'm ok, dad..." he answered finally. "Just got sick..." Leo looked at him worried, but Chris didn't actually tell him about all the sweets affair. Mean or not, Wyatt's words were still going around in his head._

_Dad hugged him again.  
"You..."_

_**-oOo-**_

_"... worried me." Paige told her sister once Phoebe finally snapped out of his self induced trance._

_"Sorry, I was thinking..."_

_"Thinking of what..."_

_"Of my next advice." The empath answered getting up and reciting:_

_**Hold your fear and unleash your heart,  
Get a grip, and you'll can see straight,  
So even in the darkest night,  
Friends from foes you'll tell apart**._

**-oOo-**

**And now:**

Eyes closed in a desperate attempt to avoid Victor's shocked face, Chris cursed his own stupidity for having slipped about mum. He'd just put his whole leg deep inside his mouth and down his throat.

Slowly he opened his eyes, trying to quickly think of a way out of the current situation. But once he looked around, it was clear that said way out was unnecessary.

_We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto_... he thought to himself, and it was true... he wasn't in Kansas nor was he in Victor's apartment.

His mind hurried to give him a suitable answer for what had happened. He'd just changed into some other Chris for a while again and awakened somewhere else... somewhere far away from Victor.

A sharp gasp called his attention and Chris was pretty proud of his maturity when he avoided curse out loud in surprise.

He was out of Victor's apartment… and right into Mum's office in the P3.

"Oh... it's you..." The teenager mumbled at his mother who was looking at him, dumbfounded.

"Chris?" the witch asked, repeating the same stupid question that the teenager was steadily growing sick of.

"No! I'm not Chris…I'm Cinderella! Look at my not so fancy dress and the oh so horrible ash in my hair..."

Things had gone like this:  
Piper had turned around for not as much as five seconds and she'd hear some... well... noises. Something like orbing, but not orbing... and when she'd look back, her nephew wasn't there anymore. Well, he was there, but he was way younger, and looking at her with a '_Oh, great, the annoying aunt is back_' look on his face.

"Chris... you... er... you weren't here two seconds ago..." She finally said, feeling awkward.

"So I just woke up, didn't I?" The kid asked, trying his best to look everywhere but at his mother. His last outburst with Victor and her words a few hours before where still fresh and painful.

"Yes you did... I was talking to your older version.. the one I know, and then here you are."

Actually the conversation was kind of funny from our point of view, since Piper was also avoiding Chris's eyes (now that she'd found his hidden identity she felt even guiltier than before)... so the final effect was like some kind of early fifties silent comedy films where people kept getting hit by the dumb clown with a ladder whle trying to avoid each other.

Little note from the author: About this last part, my beta said "What?" and once I've read it again I must agree with her and, probably, with you. It doesn't makes the slightest sense at all.

Back to the story.

"Yeah, here I am..." the teenager answered.

And here, Chris found out looking at his surroundings, was the club.

How he'd got here from grandpa's flat was under his comprehension. Probably his older self had done it... with enough luck, he'd managed to duck Victor questions after his little slip before.

"Hum... are you hungry?"  
Piper's question caught him off guard.

"I just had some breakfast." He answered automatically, before remembering that he was angry with her.

"You did?"

"Yeah... at gra... gra... at Victor's."

"Uh... but that was like... hours ago."

Chris shrugged, not really knowing how long had it been since his breakfast.

Piper breathed deep and made a decision; if she was going to apologize, she'd have to do it now. "So... hum... I think I should tell you, because I just told your other self... I know."

"You know what?" Chris forced himself to chill out, that could have a thousand different meanings.

"I know who you are... and why what... what I said affected you so badly."

"Oh..." What else was there to say? Hi mum! I'm sorry you're pregnant?

"And I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?"

"Yes..."

The teen looked at her, both eyebrows raised.  
"Sorry for what?"

"For what I said... You shouldn't have heard that..."

"You're sorry for me hearing what you were feeling?"

"Yes... no! No, I mean the discussion!" The witch answered, slightly exasperated.

"Ah, so you're sorry for having had a discussion with me..."

"Yes!"

But that didn't look like the right answer for Chris, who instead of relaxing, snapped.  
"Better to have it your way than discussing things...?"

"No! I mean that I'm sorry for yelling at you for something that had nothing to do with you."

"Great! So it has nothing to do with me?"

"Well, not nothing. If I'd know who you were, I wouldn't have yelled at you."

"So now that you know who I am it wasn't okay, but then, when I was simply the guy that came from the future to save your son... then it was okay!"

"No...that wasn't either." Now the slight exasperation was growing into fully annoyance.

"Let me get this straight... now that you know who I am, yelling at me and having a discussion with me enters into the category of 'not right'... is it?"

"Look, It has nothing to do with who you are, ok?"

"Oh! So now it doesn't matter who I am?"

"No!" Wrong answer again, she known it the moment she'd said it.

"What?"

"Well, yes, it does. But not about what I'm talking about!"

"And what are you talking ABOUT!"

"About that I'm SORRY!" Was the kid simply daft?

"Sorry for what!"

"FOR YELLING AT YOU!"

"WELL, YOU'RE YELLING AT ME AGAIN!"

"BECAUSE YOU GET ON MY NERVES!"

"SO SORRY, IT'S GENETICS!"

"WELL, GO AND COMPLAIN TO YOUR MOTHER!"

"SO NOW WE'RE BEING SARCASTIC?"

"WHAT?"

"I ASKED IF YOU WERE BEING SARCASTIC!"

"I HEARD YOU... WHY ARE WE YELLING?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"LET'S STOP!"

"OK!"

"YOU'RE STILL YELLING!"

"YOU TOO!"

"STOP!"

"YOU FIRST!"  
"Oh, for god sake! That's what you get discussing with teenagers..."

"Oh, so sorry, miss Maturity 2017..." Chris retorted, knowing he was loosing his footing in the discussion; he wasn't sure why he was making it so difficult. Probably because hearing her apologising felt wickedly good.

"2004..." Piper corrected him. "Look, and let me finish, ok? I get why you're so upset... I get it... I'm sorry I yelled at you because it was out of line. I shouldn't have."

Chris tried to interrupt her, but the witch raised a hand and stopped him.

"And I'm also sorry for what you heard... for what I said. I know it was awful, but I was tired and stressed and worried about a thousand other things, some of which had nothing to do with it and others that did... and it just was too much." She looked at Chris, the teen was looking far from her, his eyes locked in a spot in the wall.

"You said..." he began, then stopped and blushed.

"Go on..."

"You said '_mistake_'." How much that word was burning inside him. Like a little hell had take over his soul.

"That was... that was a most unfortunate word..." Piper answered, her voice sweet. "Since you know me in the future you should have known by now that when angry, I just blurt things out without thinking..."

"That's like drunks and kids... and they never lie." He answered, stubbornly.

Piper thought of a simple and plain denial, but Chris wouldn't buy it and he deserved better.  
"Well... neither did I... not exactly."

A shadow covered the kids face, for Chris had been waiting for that simple and plain denial which he could at least have pretended to believe.

Piper read the sadness in the young face and hurried to explain herself.  
"I just chose the wrong words... I didn't mean that my child is a mistake... just that I didn't expect for it to happen. Maybe I should have said unexpected…?"

"Maybe."

"The thing is, Leo and I aren't together anymore... which... by the way you reacted isn't how it goes in your time..."

"That depends on how you look at it..." He answered before his instincts kicked his commons sense awake.

"What?"

"Nothing... no, you're not divorced... neither was he an elder at this moment."

"Well, but in this time we are... and he is..." Her voice trailed off, forcing Chris to look up. Her face was suddenly creased with lines of sorrow and hurt.

That startled him, his mother had never seemed so vulnerable. Or at least he'd never seen her like that.  
Worried about a thousand other things... even when his mother had been worried about a thousand things he'd never seen in her face hold even a shadow of a doubt.

No doubts, no sorrows.

"Things are different..." Piper finished, her face aging with grief. Ironically, now she looked far more like his mother. Just his mother would never look that defeated.

At least not in front of Wyatt or me. Said someone deep inside of him... that someone, he noticed, happened to be himself.

Piper looked at him and Chris averted his eyes, lost in thoughts, in memories of his past.

"You seem tired..." The young half witch mumbled.

"I'm tired..." She agreed.

"You weren't, at the manor."

"I was..." The witch confessed looking at him with surprise, Chris's voice had sound almost childish, almost like a pout. "...but there's no good in worrying my sisters or Leo. I can put myself together. I'm the oldest, worrying is my job, not theirs..."

And she smiled a brave smile he'd grown to know and love, a brave smile that said that everything was going to be okay, that she knew how to solve everything.

A smile, he realised, that was a lie painted on her face to reassure those who were around her.

And he understood.  
He understood her smiles for the last times in his own present, in his memories of how the Halliwells live will be in fourteens years from now.

Those were memories full of smiles, perfect copies of that one.  
Smiles that, he could now see, weren't meant for her but for him. An easy falsehood to ease his worries and to keep hers hidden.

Hollow smiles.

"You've been lying..." He muttered under his breath.

Put on a brave face, because that's what mothers do, isn't it?

Breathe deep and smile because you don't want your kids to worry.

And keep lying, don't let them know the truth that's eating you inside.

And he'd believed her, because he'd wanted to believe that everything was okay, that she'd make it through.

Lies.  
Liar.

Someone should have been there right there, in that very moment. Someone should have grabbed Chris hand and caressed his cheek.  
Because it's not usual to be able to pinpoint that exact moment. The second in your live when childhood innocence is lost and leaves a hollow void that live fills with experience and will. Because such is the wisdom of nature that never closes a door without opening a window.  
But it was lost nevertheless, and nothing was left there but pain and hurt.

"Lying about what?" She asked, clueless.

You liar! You'll die.  
You won't get any better, just smiles and bravados and lies.  
And death. Cold death.

Chris wasn't angry anymore, and he wasn't going to cry either. He was looking at Piper, that young Piper with so much she had to endure and live, knowing that he wouldn't say anything. He would keep his older self's secrets and go through this like she'd taught him to do.

Chris smiled, a smile where Piper saw traces of her future neurotic whitelighter she hadn't seen before.

"Nothing... about nothing."

And the hole began to fill, now, with determination.  
"Look... let's drop this nonsense, ok?" he insisted. "You said what you said..."

"But I didn't mean what it sounded like."

Did she? Did he even care?  
Yes, he cared... but he also understood. She was scared, she reacted suddenly. He could understand that.

"It's okay, Piper..." No mom, not mom now.

The witch was looking at him suspiciously, wondering if this calmness was a prelude of a new outburst, but Chris looked of nothing but cool, a hint of sadness maybe. Piper didn't know what to do with that, what was she supposed to do with that.

She wished Paige was here, then maybe Chris would have felt better. Been more at ease.  
"We should go to the manor, Chris. Or the others will worry... we've been looking for you for a while..."

A new bigger smile was put on, closer to the ones of their oldest version than to those she'd seen in the kid earlier.

"Sure... let's go to the manor. After all, we still have a demon to vanquish."

-oOo-

Far away and deep down under the ground, although it was more of a metaphorical ground that the ground per se we walk on every day... let's say, deep inside that dimension called the Underground, a couple of Halliwell had had a surprise too.  
But it was a really pleasant surprise.

"Aren't we lucky? I think we are lucky..."

"And why do you think such a thing, Phoebe?"

"Because we had four options... and we got the cutest one!" The empath answered, her eyes transfixed on the youngest Chris, who was looking around with a mix of confusion, and a tiny bit of fear, but mostly curious.

"What are we doing in the underworld, aunt Paige?" the kid asked at the only one of the two adults that wasn't acting as if he was some kind of overgrown puppet.

Last thing he remembered, he was throwing up…  
Last thing he remembered, he was spending the morning alone with dad.

That was it, a shapeshifter. Ok, maybe that was a wrong assumption, the man had been his dad, and he was pretty sure about that. But then... What was he doing there?

His aunts looked at him, one of those looks he knew so well because it always meant something bad.

"Well... look... hum..." Phoebe, being the deep smart sensitive one, should have thought of something better to say. "Has anyone... er... updated you about what's happening?"

Chris thought about it.  
"I've been kidnapped by a demon?"

"No."

"Wyatt's been kidnapped by a demon?"

"No".

"Mum's been kidnapped by a demon?"

"No."

"You've been kidnapped by a demon?"  
"No one have been kidnapped by a demon, Chris."

"Oh... then I'm lost... what are we doing here?"

"Hum... you see... as much as we may look like your aunts right now..."

The kid took a few steps backwards, ready to run.  
"Are you shapeshifters? Because I think that my mum was a shapeshifter earlier, and dad has been acting pretty weird..."

"We're not shapeshifters!" Paige exclaimed before the kid could began to run. "Look!"

And the witch orbed behind him.

"See? No shapeshifter can do that."

"Then...?"

"Then, as I was saying..." Phoebe walked to him. "We may look as your aunts, but the truth is that we're not exactly your aunts..."

"Alternate dimension?"

"Nope..."

"Dream?"

"No."

"Book?"

"Nooo..."

"Movie?"

"NO! You're in the past..."

"In the past what?"

"In the past! You know, before the present..."

Kid Chris blinked a couple times.

"Oh... " And as there wasn't a better word for it, and he'd always been a fast learner, added. "Shit."

"Watch your mouth, young man!" Paige chastised him.

"Sorry... what I meant was that, hum.. my mum is going to be really, really upset when she finds out..." Chris pondered that thought for a moment. But what was done was done, so he decided not to worry about his mother until he had to face her. "Uh... how far into the past I am?"

"Like seven years or so... we think... Your mum has just got pregnant..." Phoebe thought about that and added. "You know... pregnant by your dad... hum... she's going to have a baby... er... you know..."

"My mum and my dad had sex and now she is going to have a baby... yes aunt Phoebe, Wyatt told me all I wanted to know about it..."

And for those of you who are thinking: C'mon, he is just seven, how is he going to talk so directly about it...  
Well, my brother explained to me the word 'fuck' (_joder_ in spanish) and all it's applications when I was around five and he more or less Chris' age. Brothers are like that; they love to keep you informed with such useful things.

"So Wyatt is around in this reality... " Silly question; he'd seen him... well, his baby self, when mum had tried to... er... "What happened with mum?"

"She was possessed." Phoebe explained, happy to change the subject.

"Oh... I see. Is she alright now?"

"Yes, she's alright... in fact, she was looking for you so I think we better go... I mean, we're in the underworld... that just seems like a horrible idea."

Both, Paige and Chris nodded. Although the younger sister raised a hand, claiming their attention.  
"But before we leave, there's something that you must know, Chris..."

"Grandpa's been kidnapped by a demon?"

"No! What happens with you and kidnappings?"

"Dunno... mum is always worried some demon is going to kidnap us..."

"Well, whatever... the thing is that Piper doesn't know you're his son... and you can't tell her."

"Why?"

"Because you'd be upset if you find out you've told her."

Chris was a smart kid, but that was a little too much for him.  
"What?"

"Way to go sister..." Paige chided the middle Charmed sister before kneeling down in front of Chris. "Chris, honey, you surely have seen weird things in the manor, haven't you? I mean, growing up there and such."

"Uh... yes..."

"Like..."

"Like when you grew green hair all around your face and claimed to be a... uh... a willow."

Phoebe snorted and Paige glared at her.  
"Well, this is just something like that... only different."

Chris' blank stare told her she wasn't having much success either. So she decided to go straight to the point.

"It's like this, Chris... You came to the past knowing what you were doing, more or less, because you wanted to help us doing something. But you didn't tell us who you were and since you weren't even born, we didn't know you. Ok?"

Chris nodded, more to keep her talking than to agree.

"And the thing is that you didn't wanted us to know, but then there was an accident..." Paige glared again at her older sister again when Phoebe had a sudden fit of coughs. "...an accident and then you just... kind of shrunk..."

"Shrunk?"

"You got younger... twenty four hours or so ago, you were like twenty two years old. And now you keep changing to older and younger until we find a way to get you back to your proper age. Did you understand that?"

"Ah... no... well, maybe enough... that's why I keep waking up in weird places?" He wondered. Things were making a little more sense. A little.

"Yes. The thing is that right now your mom doesn't know who you are and you can't tell her."

"Because of future consequences?"

"Were you born saying those words?"

"Uh?"

His youngest aunt waved it off with a shrug.  
"Nothing... so it's okay?"

"Yes, okay... I can't call mum _"mum"_ in front of her."

"Neither you can call Leo _dad_, or us _aunts_, ok?"

"Ok..." Chris gave her thumbs up.

Phoebe clasped her hands and grabbed both, her nephew and her sister.  
"You know?" She said as Paige began to orb them. "I'm getting used to finding grown up relatives."

Victor looked at his grandson, his all grown up grandson.

The weird thing was that he was more shocked by the fact that he wasn't as shocked as he should have been considering his grandson had disappeared.

Not to mention, he disappeared right after almost telling him that his daughter was... would be... was going to be... well, would die (or at least would be dying in the future... and this thought had sense somehow!) and he had been replaced by... well, by the cocky young man that had redecorated his apartment a day or so ago. Who was, indeed, no one other than his grandson, only older.

Yep, it made perfect sense.

"Hi..." Sure there were far more fitting greetings, but he wasn't about to think of one.

"Hi..." The young man answered, looking around. "This is weird."

"You tell me, Mr. Let's-cover-the-walls-with-blood?"

"Uh... about that..."

"Yes, yes, yes... you were protecting Wyatt blah blah blah blah... Just don't worry too much..."

Chris reluctantly accepted his words. That is, he nodded but didn't look very comfortable with the situation.  
"Hum... I know you don't like all these magical things but... what am I doing here?"

"You just... appeared here..." How much did the young man know of what had been happening?

Victor had the feeling that he didn't know much.

"Did I? Last I remember, I was with Piper."

"Great, last I remember I was about to drink something... Now it will be something a little stronger than what I usually drink at such hours in the morning, but I'm sure you will forgive this old man due to everything that's been going on lately."

"Suit yourself... hum... about me appearing here... did I orb?"

"Blue balls and dingling? Nope." Victor grabbed a glass and some ice cubes and was ready to grab a bottle from the cabinet when there was indeed blue balls and dingling; Wyatt appeared out of nowhere, right into Chris arms.

"One day I won't catch and you will fall..." Chris complained, getting a better grip of the toddler who was cheering.

Victor swore, his voice low, and dropped the ice cubes in the sink.

"Okay, young man, as I'm not going to have anything a little spirited to drink right now, and I'm too tired to play dumb let's make this straight. I know you're Chris Perry from the future, my daughters whitelighter, AND I know you're also my grandson, Piper's son and therefore Wyatt's brother." The older man looked at him again. "Plus I do really like your sweater..."

Chris looked at the old and used blue cloth.  
"It was yours."

"I know."

"You gave it to me long ago."

"I thought so."

"Just out of curiosity... is there anyone in the whole city that doesn't know?" He wasn't really going to freak out; after all, it was Victor.

"No idea... probably... your mum doesn't..."

That reminded Chris of something.  
"Nope, she doesn't... she thinks I'm Paige's son..."

"Come again?"

"Paige's son."

And Victor burst into laugher.

There's not a better way to put it. He began to laugh the moment Chris had said those words and kept laughing through his complains.

_"C'mon, Victor... it's not funny!"  
"Hey!"   
_Laughter.  
_"Victor!"  
"C'mon, grandpa, stop laughing... it's very serious..."  
_More laughter.  
_"Please!"  
"Grandpaaaaa!"  
_  
Practically five minutes later, the old man managed to calm down a little.  
"Sorry, it's just that... well..."

Chris snorted.  
"Ok, it's kind of funny... but I can't believe my mum thinks she's my aunt..."

It wasn't Victor's fault, really... it's just that Wyatt had snorted. Or at least it had sounded like a snort. And the laughter re-started again.

_"Hello! Standing here!"_ Chris pouted, actually pouted, far more honest than any pout his teen version could manage.

Victor's laughter grew louder, and so did Wyatt's who wasn't sure of what was going on but liked that sound far better than all the yells he'd heard lately. He liked also the feeling, like tickling or raspberries without someone touching him.

Plus the weird guy that had once vowed him he would never, ever, change his diapers was changing. He liked that sound too; Wyatt could sense it. He felt it in the way he grabbed him, in the way his breath soothed and his heart sang. In the way the guy's grey feelings turned green and yellow.

The toddler managed to grab the man's face and smiled when he looked down.

Chris smiled back.  
Chris... that was his name.  
Mum was mum, and dad was dad.  
And he was Chris. It was important, it felt important but Wyatt, being barely one year old couldn't know why.

However the smile grew and soon he was laughing too.

After all, Chris thought, it WAS funny.

-oOo-

The manor was empty.

Empty and calm up until Phoebe, Paige, and kid Chris orbed in.

Then it wasn't empty, obviously, and as Paige found pretty soon, Phoebe and the young Chris in the same room scared away all shades of quietness.

"Ow! C'mon, you're a kid, you shouldn't be all that tied up!" Phoebe was complaining towards the kid, who was covering his ears.  
"Lalalalala! Lalalalalalalalalaaaaaaa! I''m not listening."

"Pleaaaase! Just a little hint! Am I going to marry Jason?"  
"Lalalalalalalala!"

"Will I have kids?"  
"Laaaaaaaaa lalalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Will I be rich?"  
"Not listeniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! Lalalalaaaaaa lalalalaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Children, be quiet!" Paige yelled, backing away from them. She went into the kitchen, looking for a calm place while dialling a number in her cell. "I'm trying to call Piper but she's not answering her phone!"

"Mum never does... she aaaaaalways forgets to charge her phone." Chris explained with a grin, his hands still on his ears.

"Oh... I thought she would grow out of that..." The younger Charmed protested with a sigh.

"She won't." The kid shook his head, approaching her.

"You can hear her!" Phoebe interrupted them. "So you can hear me, pleeeease...? Ok, just answer with yes or no! Am I gonna marry Jason?"  
"Lalalala!"

"Was that a yes?"  
"Lalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaalalalalaaaaaaaaaa lalalal alalalaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Oh, you little..."

"What the hell is going on here?" The shout came from the kitchen door, making everyone jump and turn around with a start. They found Piper, glaring at them through the door gap. "Why are you yelling, Pheebs? We could hear you from the attic... it sounded like..." But nobody ever found out what it sounded like because Piper stopped dead in the middle of her sentence.

"We?" The empath asked following her sister eyes to kid Chris who, in order of being subtle, was fighting with all his will to stop the grin that threatened to cross his face.

"Yeah, me and..." The older Halliwell herself and then at Chris."...him. How did you...? Did you orb?"

Chris was actually trying to breath without setting free a laugh that would probably not stop easily, so he simply managed to shake his head.

Blue balls and dinglings filled the air.

"Leo!" Piper exclaimed, happy to find her husband, wondering if she should share Chris' secret identity with him.

"Where's Leo?" Grown up Chris' form appeared in the middle of the kitchen. "Look, girls, this is weird. I just appeared in Piper's and Phoebe's father's flat for no apparent reason."

The young man from the future looked at his current charges as a whitelighter who, in turn, looked back with bewilderment.  
"Hum... girls? Uh... I thought we where past all this 'get out of the house' issues..."

The sisters were still looking at him and something under Chris's current line of vision moved.  
The half witch looked down.

"What are you doing with this kid? Who is this kid anyway?" The half-whitelighter turned to face Paige, annoyed. "Is this one of your temp job things, again?"

The silence grew deeper as no one knew what to answer. Kid Chris, who was a sugar addict, but not stupid, decided that, by now, the best thing he could do was to play dumb and smile.

"Hey! Care to explain?" Chris was getting nervous, in his experience, the longer before an answer, the worse the answer would be.

The silence grew so thick you could have cut it with a knife.

Slowly, because even when you're a witch and you've seen lots of weird things there are some situations slightly harder to cope with, Chris's brain started processing information. He faced the kid.  
"Do I know you?"

Paige snorted.

The kitchen door opened again.  
"Hello? What is taking you so lo-" teen Chris looked around the kitchen until he locked sights with Chris, who was beginning to remember those faces from old photographs. "-o-o-o-ong... this is just so very bad..."

"Very, very bad..." Kid Chris agreed.

"On the other hand I shall remember to cut my hair more often in the future... that look is far too last century!." The teenager added with a grimace.

Kid Chris nodded.

Adult Chris, whose mind was desperate hanging on the edges of sanity, looked at both younger versions of himself and turned to the sisters.

"Wh--- wh--- what---?" There were no enough words in his vocabulary to express himself. Although, in fact, "Wh-wh-wh-what?" resumed pretty much what the half witch was thinking.

"Uh... oh..." kid Chris agreed, again.

"Just when you thought that the day couldn't get weirder..." Paige managed to mumble.

Well... what to say now? I mean, ok, my English vocabulary is not thaaaat bad, although I recognize that it could be wider... well, hey! I'm not even English... so I've just searched for the correct word to describe the last scene.

Definitely not possible.

Ok, yes... they were surprised... but that just seems petty.

Surprised is when you discover that your boyfriend is gay. Not that I mind a boy being gay, but if that boy happens to be my boyfriend... well, that would surprise me to say the least.

So what is left? Bewildered?

I don't know... I've just always thought that it was more in the lines of discovering that you have a siamese sister or brother that was brought up by chimpanzees in the middle of the jungle.  
Clearly, not enough.

Astonished?  
C'mon... astonished is what you're when you find an alien in the dog house.

There's also other ways to put it... surely there's other ways, but as I said, my vocabulary isn't that extensive and I'm not really in the mood to look for a synonymous dictionary right now. Meaning that I can't find one googling for spanish-english translators...

Plus, the truth is that adult Chris, in all his experience and long bus rides playing crosswords, just managed to finally master the perfect reaction.

"What the hell?"

Let me replay it.  
"Wh--- what the hell?"

Piper looked from the youngest version to the oldest.  
"I thought... I thought... well, there was just one... HE... well, HE is THEY now?"

"Wh--- what the hell?"

"Clearly that's not the case anymore." Paige answered at her sister, ignoring Chris' close to hysterical reaction.  
"But... how is it possible?" Phoebe asked, looking too at her nephew... nephews... whatever...  
"Magic?" guessed the younger Chris.  
"Welcome to the Halliwell manor..." Teen Chris mumbled. "Where wonderment and excitement never ends."

"Wh--- what the hell?"

"Chris, honey..." Paige grabbed the young man by the arm and dragged him to a chair where he more dropped than sat. "Maybe we should talk, don't you think?"

Adult Chris glared at her, then glared at Phoebe, and finally glared at Piper.  
"Can this be explained in less than ten words?" He asked.

Paige shook her head.  
"I barely think that this could be explained in a way where you don't kill us later."

"Instead of killing you now?"

Kid Chris grasped both hands in his mouth, as if trying to block his older self 's words. Middle Chris simply grimaced and glanced sideways at his mother... she'd told him she knew who he was, was she going to get mad at him, then? But the witch didn't look distressed at all.

Old Chris went on, signalling his other selves.  
"Are this two for real?"

"Uh... yes... they are..."

He, the older version, kneeled down until he was face to face with his kid self, who was having a new fit of laughter.  
"They look real."

"Well, we are real." Teen Chris argued, forcing adult Chris to stand up and look at him now. He even rose a hand and touched his other self's hair.

"Hum..." Adult Chris proceeded to pinch the other ones chick with a finger. "Hum..."

"Hey!" Teen Chris took a step backwards. "Look but don't touch."

The adult half whitelighter relented and backed up a little, turning again to the sisters.  
"Now, and very slowly, can you please explain what's happening?"

"The truth is..." Piper looked at her "nephew". "...that it all began when you took Wyatt away yesterday..."

Phoebe had a fit of coughs.  
"More or less..." The older witch added. "... we wrote this spell..."

"Spell?"

"... so we could... hum... this is hard to explain..."

"Did you say spell?"

"Yes, yes! Spell. We wrote a spell so we could learn where was Wyatt..."

A fresh fit of coughs.

"Among other things." The oldest Halliwell added in a lower voice... unfortunately, not low enough for the adult half witch from the future heard it.

Chris walked to one of the kitchen cabinet and grabbed the aspirins. He served himself a glass of water and dropped a tablet in it. He was moving carefully, trying with all his might to stop himself from getting too upset. For a few seconds the only noise to be heard was the one of the tablet dissolving.

"Other things? Other things like aaaaall those secrets I've been keeping from you?" suddenly he wasn0tthat interested about those midgets with his face and far more interested in that spell.

"Perhaps, but the things is..." Piper, on the other, was willing to bite her hand off just to avoid talking about the spell.

Chirs, of course, was not going to drop the subject.  
"So I go through hell to keep certain information hidden in order - IN ORDER - to protect the future, YOUR FUTURE TOO, and you go and cast a spell on me? A spell that brings this two... Mini and Tiny me versions out of only gods know where and into our world?"

"In fact, we're you." theteenager thought he had to emphasize that point, just so his oldest version wouldn't overlook it. He earned a murderous glare from the his adult self.

_I can't handle this._ Chris was thinking._ It's been a long day._ _Hell, it's been a long year... I'm not... I'm just not in the mood for that._

He was tired, he'd barely eaten, the food he'd had at P3 was the first he'd eaten in three days; the same amount of time he hadn't sleep. Someone casting a spell on him was just a little too much to take in.

"Oh, c'mon! We were trying to protect Wyatt..." Piper complained a little too harsh, Chris may be family now, but Wyatt was still her son.

"So was I."

"If you were a little less guarded about everything it wouldn't have been necessary." The witch insisted. "And we wouldn't have this mess."

The middle Charmed one rolled her eyes. "Here we go again" She whispered to her younger sister who sighed, oblivious to teen Chris who was glaring at them.

Meanwhile, things where boiling up in the discussion.

"How is it that it's aaaaalways my fault when YOU cast the damn spell?"

"Because you forced us!"

Paige, Phoebe and both other versions of Chris managed to get the farthest away possible from both Piper and adult Chris.  
"I forced you? You could have trusted me!"

"In what basis? Your lying to us? Your hiding that you were a half witch? Your killing a Valkiry? Your splitting Leo and I up?"

Chris looked as if he was about to answer something harsh enough to make Piper blow him up, but thought better of it for he simply looked at her with a mix of infuriation and... well, and more aggravation, slightly mixed with weariness.  
"I... I simply don't need this now..." The young man drank the aspirin in one single swallow, dropped the glass in the sink and stormed outside the kitchen.

"Chris wait!" Paige started to follow him, but teen Chris stopped her.

"He'll want to be alone with himself for a while..." The young boy told her, and with a witty grin added. "That's why I'll go with him while you talk to miss Diplomacy here..."

The teenager left the kitchen after himself.

Phoebe didn't allow the silence to settle again because she was getting fed up with its use for the emotional narration in this story.

"Congratulations, sister... you may want to try and upset the kid Chris too... just so you have perfect record." She blurted at Piper, signalling at kid Chris.

"Well, what did you wanted me to do? Lie to him?"

"What about being a little more... hum... suave about the way you talk to him? I mean it's the second time in a row..."

The older Halliwell sighed, her sister was right. It was just that... well...  
"I don't know, he just keeps getting on my nerves... and he's not better than me!" The witch added. "I mean, he keeps taking everything I say the wrong way... it's like we were talking in different languages. I just hope things won't go this way when the time comes..."

Again, Phoebe stopped any kind of silence-based prose.  
"When... hum...the time to comes?"

Piper looked at her middle sister and then at Paige, who was next to the kitchen door, pretending not to try to see if something was happening in the parlour or the dinning room. She completely overlooked kid Chris who took advantage of the situation by eavesdropping.  
"If I tell you something about Chris... will you be able to keep your mouth shut for once?" The witch was whispering.

No, thought the empath. "Yes", She said in the same low tone.

"It's... well, it's huge, but you can't tell Paige, ok?"

She knows! Phoebe felt the weight of responsibility dropping off her shoulders.

"Why can't I tell Paige?" Usually it was her who was kept in the dark about secrets, for obvious reasons.

"Because it shouldn't be us the ones to tell her... Chris should."

Uh?

"Tell her what?"

"That she's his mother."

--oOo—

He found his adult self sitting on the bottom of the stairs.

He use to, still did, sit there when he was distressed, usually because of Leo, or after an argument, usually about Leo.

He'd leave the kitchen in a rush and would close the door so hard the manor would tremble, hot tears in his eyes and his hands shaking of suppressed rage. His head would hurt from trying to sooth himself, so to stop his powers from causing havoc. And he would sit there, far enough to make sure he made the point of wanting to be alone, yet close enough for his mum to find him if she decided to follow.

Those times he'd actually wanted to be alone, he'd orb somewhere out the city and wait in silence until Wyatt would orb next to him and get him back.

Lately, at least in his present, most of the times he'd been doing the second and, truth to be told, the fighting hadn't been with Leo. It hadn't even been ant fighting. Just the hopelessness hanging in the air.

No, no fights about dad... he'd been home for quite a while now. Maybe not all the time, but at least he'd seen him around most of the day.  
Curiously, that would distress him enough to make him orb away for a while. He hated seeing him sitting next to mum. Speechless.

Chris forced himself to snap out of his unwelcome thoughts and stare at his older self who looked drowned. Adult Chris was sitting, with his eyes shut and his body leaning against the wall. Had he not known the man like he did, which was more than a casual observer may think but less than teen Chris himself thought, he'd thought he was asleep.

His adult version's quietness was disturbing him, and Chris would have broke the ice somehow if a guffaw hadn't done it for him first.

Aunt Phoebe was laughing her head off in the kitchen and Piper wasn't happy with it.

"She thinks I'm her nephew." Adult Chris said with a humourless grin.

"Well... we're her nephew..."

The young man looked at his younger self and nodded.  
"Yeah... we... I forgot. It's..."

"It's weird... I know. Man, I hate spells that backfires like this..."

Adult Chris looked at him with contempt.  
"Like when Wyatt and I... that is, we, crossed our personalities with those strays dogs?"

"Stray cats... those where stray cats." The teenager corrected him and at his thoughtful expression added. "Did I pass the little test? Or do you want me to go and tell mum about when we met the neighbour and got an erection?"

The oldest half witch blushed so hard he thought his nose would bleed but was surprised when he didn't felt the pang of pain he'd thought he would feel.

"That was awkward." Teen Chris remembered, blushing a little too.

"Yes." He conceded, and then, for it was better for him to know, added. "But not worse than Piper, 'cause I was talking about her, thinking that we're her nephew."

-oOo-

In the kitchen, Piper had finally managed to calm Phoebe, the family heard a sudden burst of laughs coming from the dinner room.

"It seems that Chris has managed to sooth... er... Chris." Paige said, relieved, heading back.

"Wait, Paige... come here, you have to hear this!" Exclaimed the empath, ignoring her sister attempts to quiet her.

"What?" The younger Charmed walked over to her sisters. Piper was trying to kill the middle witch with her eyes, talking fast and low, with a lot of hushing, to a Phoebe who was leaning with kid Chris, both laughing to tears.

-oOo-

"You should stop laughing..." Adult Chris suggested when his younger version managed to get calm enough to take slow breaths, his face red and tears in his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah... sorry. It's just that... she said earlier that she knew my secret and I thought... well, that she knew she was my mother."

"Our mother... and keep it quiet." Chris whispered, urging him to do so.

"Yes, our mother, sorry." Teen Chris agreed, whispering too. "And talking about her... why don't you tell them who you are? I mean... I shouldn't tell you, but dad and the aunts already know..."

"They told me... but mum doesn't."

The discussion was momentarily interrupted by Paige's laughs that, hastily followed by Phoebe's and kid Chris' ones. They kept quiet until the laughs were finished.

"Tell her." Chris went on as if nothing had interrupted them.

"No way."

"Why?"

"How old are you?" Adult Chris asked, apparently changing of subject.

Young Chris frowned at the sudden question, suspicious of what it meant.  
"I'm going to be fourteen in a month or so..."

"Then I can't tell you either."

"Yes you can."

"No... really, I know what's being you at your age in this very moment, and you don't want to know."

"If you do so you should know better than to patronize me."

"I'm not patronizing you..."

"Yes you are... plus I know what it's like being me right now and right here... and I think that you will regret if you don't tell her. Plus, it would had been easier, wouldn't it of?"

Chris snorted.  
"Are you kidding me? They would have never believed me."

"But now they will... that's why they cast this spell."

"They cast this spell to find proof so to bust me to hell."

"Yes, and they found that you were right, which is a unique situation because now they won't doubt you anymore and you may find their help useful in doing whatever you've come here to do. And talking about that, where's Wyatt?"

"He is with Victor."

"Good... nice job with the blocking spell... how did you do it so that even mum couldn't find him?"

"In ways I hope you will never learn in this time line."

The teenager measured that answer and everything it meant.  
"Why are you here?" he asked.

His older self snorted again and Chris began to understand why his mother hated him doing that.  
"I believe that you already know that answer."

"I do." The teenager agreed. "Although I hoped that you'd come for mum."

"I would..."

"I know, but it would be pointless, would it? I mean, if dad couldn't heal her it's because she's not supposed to be healed."

The adult Chris looked at his young version with a mix of sadness and surprise.  
"I didn't get to that conclusion until I was fourteen... my younger version is smarter than me? Lame."

"Don't beat yourself that much... I've been talking with Piper for a while, I've learnt a couple of things."

Another snort came from adult Chris, however this one actually had some happiness in it.  
"Yeah... I've learnt a couple of things about them too..."

"Like?"

There was and embarrassed silence.

"Aunt Paige and Aunt Phoebe hit on me..." He had to explain this, it had been eating him inside for months and who better to tell than yourself?

A new and even more embarrassed silence.

"Hit like... flirted? Like... trying to make out? With you? That is, with me?" Teen Chris's face was one of absolute horror. "I knew that being so handsome would have it's drawbacks..."

"The truth is that they weren't really them... " Explained the older Chris. "...three blonds were pretending to be them and had fooled all of us..."

"Hey, mum explained it to us no to so long ago... those were really lame witches, weren't they?"

"Well, the thing is that I barely remembered mum telling me that story, so for some time I really thought they were our aunts."

Young Chris grimaced.  
"Oh man... what's worse than that?"

"To break the charm, I had to kiss the one that was pretending to be Phoebe..."

"You kissed aunt Phoebe? That's... there's no words in the world to say how gross is that. She is your aunt... and she is old!"

"I knew it wasn't her!"

"But you still remembered her as your aunt... oh! I'm having mental pictuuuuures!"

"Hush!" Adult Chris begged his younger version to lower his voice; really, the last he needed now was Phoebe ever knowing that happened.

"Sorry, sorry... aaargh, my head... I will grow up with traumatized because of you."

"No, you will grow up to be me, and I have no traumas."

"I've known you for less than ten minutes and I can already say that that's a lie."

"I don't remember being such a wise ass at your age..." Adult Chris complained, sighing.

"That's because I'm not a wise ass and you should tell your mother the truth."

"Now you're giving me advice? How weird is that?"

"Just think of me like your good conscience... I can try to sit in your shoulder if you want, but I think you'll get hurt."

Adult Chris saw his younger version draw the cocky smile Bianca had once swore would get him killed someday. He couldn't help but to think that she was wrong, that smile was charming.  
"Very funny, you're very funny..." He retorted to keep the conversation going and his mind far from Bianca.

"No, what's funny is mum believing that we're aunt Paige's son..." Answered the teenager half witch with a grin that was mirrored by his adult self. "Man, she can be so thick sometimes... like when she grounded Wyatt and I for a month without orbing because we'd gone to the underworld and so we wrote that spell so we could actually move around without orbing."

"She knew..." Chris felt himself obliged to explain. "She learnt of it a week before the grounding was done and said nothing because dad had just said that he wouldn't make it for Christmas and I was already pissed as it was..."

"Yep! That's true, dad didn't made it that Christmas... not that he came to the last one."

"But he did the next one." Chris interrupted his other self before the teen could begin listing all the times Leo had bailed on them. "And the next one..."

"What? Is he going to change into super dad now?"

"I don't..." Chris shook his head. "I don't really want to talk about this, ok?"

Teen Chris raised both hands in surrender, slightly confused because pissing about Leo was like his favourite pastime.

Adult Chris remembered that so, to ease his mind of new questions, he finished his explanation.  
"Plus I kind of remember that later, in the middle of an incident with a demon that affected our whitelighter powers, the spell backfired on us and send me and Wyatt to Cambodia. "

The teenager face lit up.

"So I will go to Cambodia? Man that's cool!"

Chris, adult Chris that is, couldn't help but to laugh remembering the weird obsession he'd got of visiting Cambodia just because of some class they had in school about the place.

He'd even planned on taking mum there once she was feeling better.

That, obviously, never happened, and he all but forgot about the place until they landed there due to a modification Wyatt had made to the spell without his asset.

That had been fun in a way, Wyatt had managed to calm him down before he'd killed his older brother. Then they'd spend the day in Phnom Phen before the effect of the demon disappeared and the twice blessed orbed them back to the manor. There they found Leo and Victor on the verge of killing each other, a difference that was hastily settled in order to better yell at them until their ears were numb before they even had the chance to explain them why their orbing hadn't worked in the whole day.

Now, with some years between him and that adventure, Chris wondered if Wyatt hadn't set up all the incident just so they could go to Cambodia without Leo having a fit, as a extreme measure to cheer him up that had worked pretty well.

Wyatt had taken care of him, in a way, after the event had happened. Victor had been his shoulder and, in a sense, Leo had been a pillar that tried to keep them all together, and failed. But Wyatt had been the one that took him from the ground and helped him stand up, grabbed his hand and walked with him all the way out of the pain right until the moment when the way disappeared under his feet and the hand grabbing his became a bough.

Again, that was a place he did not wanted to go.  
"You should tell mum what's all about..." Spoke a softer voice.

Both, teen and adult Chris jumped out of their skulls and back before turning to see thier even younger version, who'd managed to walk from the kitchen to the stairs without them noticing him.

"... we're sneaky, aren't we?" The middle Chris asked to no one.

"Sorry... they're talking... well, mum is talking while the aunts are laughing. Mum thinks we're aunt Paige's son..." Little Chris explained. "And I think you should tell her who we are."

"Yeah... we think it." Teen Chris agreed. "We won't be able to keep our secret forever, don't you think? She's bound to find out."

"I've been able to keep this as a secret for the past months..." Adult Chris argued.

Little Chris nodded.  
"Yes, but now aunt Phoebe knows, and she will tell mum our secret sooner or later because she is pretty much like us."

"We can keep a secret!" The oldest Chris complained.

"We may learn to in the years to come, but I can say that we can't keep any right now." His teenage version retorted.

Kid Chris nodded in a knowing way and continued.  
"Plus aunt Phoebe cann't... and if she did not tell mum... well... Aunt Paige and Daddy knows..."

"Daddy?" Said both older boys at once with a disgusted face.

"Dad... dad knows..."

"Even Victor does... " Continued the teenager. "...It's like a public secret... you won't be able to protect her from the truth forever."

But the adult Chris kept shaking his head. They didn't know, they didn't understand.  
"There's a wall between us right now... something that keeps me from getting too involved, if I break that wall, if I cross the line and tell her... I can't allow myself to get too much involved with them. I must remain objective. This must not get personal..."

"Chris... we're their son and nephew, we're his brother... you just can't stop this from getting too personal."

"I was doing perfectly fine, thanks!"

"Oh, please... who do you wanna fool?" The teenager ignored his older one's glares. "If you wanted to avoid this mission, or however you call it, from getting too personal why didn't you send someone else to do it? Why did you come yourself?"

Discussing with yourself is always a bad idea for your others always know both the answers and the questions beforehand... this was one of those things you could empirically learn when you're raised in a magical family.

"Because they're my family... it had to be me..." Adult Chris half explained/half confessed.

"Because it's already something personal." The middle Chris cut him off. "You couldn't help getting involved in this, in their lives... it's your life too."

The older version of this temporal jigsaw puzzle that's giving me a headache, looked at his younger versions, still shaking his head.

"I know what you two mean... I know why you think that she should know who we are because all those ideas had crossed my mind in the past months more than once... but I can't allow it, I can't let it happen, there's so many risks..."

"The only risk is you're afraid of is facing her after all you're done, mister-let's-break-up-my-parents-marriage!" Teen Chris face had changed from compassion to annoyance. "You fear her reaction, not how the future may change... you're afraid she will push you back..."

"That's not..."

"Don't give me bullshit!"

Kid Chris clasped both hand in his mouth, as if the words had originally been said by himself and not by his older version... that was in fact himself like six years in his future... that was confusing.

"Sorry?" Adult Chris asked, startled by the outburst.

"We both... the three of us know that that's what you're afraid of, so don't play dumb now."

_And I know you're afraid of it and of how much it will hurt if she can't cope with it, if she doesn't accepts you. And believe me, it will hurt like hell._

But the teenager did not add that part because the less his older self knew about it, the better. After all he'd just learnt how to pretend.

And he was pretty sure that she hadn't really meant those words. She was tired; he'd never seen her tired before.

Anyway, adult Chris wasn't up for it.

"Now you know me that much?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from every word "You're still in the _My-testosterone-gets-the better-of-me phase_, wait till you actually have to shave before starting picking on Phoebe's job..."

"Sure, because you've managed to grow such a beard."

"Hey...!"

Kid Chris interrupted both older versions thoughts before the discussion could continue through it's '_oh so helpful_' path.

"I don't understand why you don't want mum to know who we are..." he said, casually stepping between his older, yet less mature, selves. "If you'd tell her, she'd help us do what we're here to do..."

"You don't know what we're here to do..." Teen Chris spat, eager to return to his argument, ignoring the kid that, even being himself, was only seven or six thus oblivious of what was really happening.

"Yes he does." Adult Chris cut him now. "I think he does."

The young half witch licked his lips before answering.  
"Yes, I know."

_Of course you know... we all know, don't we?_ The oldest Chris thought.

_If I was to see myself at two, I'd probably know. And if I was to meet myself at eighteen... that's a good question? _

_Would I know if I was eighteen? _

_Most likely I'd be just too worked up killing something or someone to even realise the possibilities of being in the past. But I don't want to think about this either... SIGHS! _

_There's so many things in my past that I don't want to think about that I should have lobotomy to be able to afford a melancholy moment.  
_  
Laughs in the kitchen rose again, so Piper had probably said something again about Chris and Paige. That broke the awkward moment.

"But we were talking about telling mum who we are..." Kid Chris resumed.

"I already told you that I can't..." Adult Chris repeated, again.

"But you miss her." The kid interrupted him with the truth. "I miss her and I've only been around for some hours."

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does, because she will know about us and I don't want to get caught in the middle of another lie... she hates it when we lie... she gets mad and then we're grounded."

Both older selves barely managed to conceal a laugh after that.

This Piper wouldn't ground them... well, she probably wouldn't. It was almost for sure that this Piper wouldn't...  
Oh, crap!

"She's not going to ground us..." The adult Chris said, trying to ease both himselves, he and the kid. And whoever else got a stronger headache after this affirmation, please raise your hand.

"Yes she is." The youngest Chris insisted.

Oh, yes, she is, thought both older Chris. For life.

"You're completely loosing the point of the discussion here..." The oldest one, who'd lost said point too, tried to resume it again. To make them see his ways. "She doesn't needs to know, it's unnecessary and a risk..."

"She can help you." The kid disagreed.

"She can't."

"Yes, she can."

"No, she can't."

"Yes."

"No."

"She can and he is right!" The kid pointed at his teenager version, who was amusedly looking at his smaller version acting with what Wyatt always called the Chris-way-to-deal-with-arguments. That is, being stubborn enough to make the rock move out of your way.

If anything, he was happy he'd grown out of petty discussions, at least through puberty.

And back to the argument, the problem was that his older version was acting in the same way, so it was a fight of wills where both fighters had the exact same amount of... well... wills. And where one had experience and years of... let's call it wisdom, the other had... well, a hidden weapon every child gets from birth and looses over the age of seven or eight.

A grin sprawled across the kid's face while he faked a dramatic sigh.

"Well, I did not wanted to resort to this, but..." he said, and it was a lie so clear that the teenager felt disappointed when his nose didn't grew two feet length. With a lopsided grin he recognized as their own trademark the half witch bawled at the top of his lungs. "UUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! UUUUAAAAAAH! UUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! UUUAAAAAAAAAH!..."

Both Chris' saw the mock in the kid's watery eyes while big and round tears began falling through his face. Such mock disappeared the moment the sisters arrived the kitchen.

"Fooled by my own old secret weapon..." Chris mumbled. "...so not cool"

The 16 th chapter... thank you all so much for your patience.

Please understand that among other things, the chapters are very long and both, my beta and I have other obligations in life.

In fact I would usually say that I would trade said obligations for the fic at anytime... but that would be a lie.

I'm working in my last year project for the univerisity, and it's very important, and difficult, yet it's amazing and I'm learning how much do I like some parts of my career... the drawback is that I don't have all the time I should to write and check and re-check.

That said, I leave you here and go to sleep because it's past 2 o'clock in the morning and I have to get upt pretty early tomorrow

I hope you liked this chater (my beta says she did) and I beg you to have again a little patience. You're the best!

And As Always, you're the bestest non existant word! ever.

On the other hand,... I wan't to thank too my reviewers.

THAAAANKS!

I had so many reviews and they were so long TT I would have cried, but the cookies psico Chris had make were keeping me happy and smiling (later I found that it was because psico Chris had put some of his hapy pills in the receipt )

You're wonderful, really!

**Nightowl123: I'm still thinking of adding the octogenarian one... thx**

**Kilikapele: First, don't worry, I love rambling.**

**I'm glad the update caused such a rush of emotions here's another one.**

**Hahaha! And not, you did not confused me, but I'm glad I confused you (or I'll be if at then end of the fic, confusion disappears)**

**Thanks for the appreciation, in fact, it make it harder to do, because sometimes I knew how I wanted the next part to start but I had to think of a way to finish the current, or viceversa.**

**I've not mentioned they actual age, but for Teen Chris, who's nearly 14 but not yet (a couple of weeks left that's mean, I know.). For what we know, kid Chris is around six or seven; Psico Chris is more or less in his eighteens; and adult Chris around 22. There's no real reason for me not to tell their age, it's just that the question have never arised in the fic and everytime I tried to put it, it sounded weird.**

**About half whitelighters childs... who knows... maybe the whitelighter gene it's the strongets, therefore the son of a halfwhitelighter wuld be a halfwhitelighter too... Piper doesn't knows that much about it... I mean, Paige's the first halfwhitelighter ever that we know and she's kidless for now.**

**And about kid Chris and memories... there's the begining of a fic placed some years in the future... maybe I will write it once this one is finished, but it dwells somehow with that... or at least that's mentioned in it, not the central point.**

**You can get a live, but please, promise me that you will remember to read and review my story! pleaaaase!**

**Terra fea: Of course I remembered your low cal cookie (I had to check the web to get what it meant XD), and you can have some more.**

**The story is set from their points of view, so I'm sorry but until they don't fins what's happening, we won't know either. There's no fun in answering the questions right away... and I'm an evil person whoe gets fun out of other people curiosity... ok, and I have to get a live too TT**

**And about the groups thinking that they have the one and only Chris... as I said, it0s from their point of viewñ... so for now, they do. May I stress the words: FOR NOW... hum... I just remembered that I'm gona place this atthe bottom of the fic, so you already know that answer.**

**Thanks!**

**Ritagarcia: thanks, i'm glad you're liking this story. And I don't think Piper's that stupid, I do really believe that I would explore a whole world of possibilities before even thinking of the remote posibility of Chris being my son... plus the worst deductions skills I've ever seen in a human person.**

**Wonder: Thanks! I'm glad the confusion settled down.**

**Themagicbringer: 3 Chrises in fact I know t was confusing, it's part of the fun.**

**Bunn2007: Thanks! The transitions where a little hard to do, but I just thought it was a good way to show that everything was happening at the same time and... well, it was fun!**

**Ok, they're 4 Chris' that's true and about their ages changing... we know that before, when there was apparently just one Chris, his age kept changing whenever a sister casted a spell... Now there's four Chris' and... hum... the thing is I don't know how to properly explain this without actually saying too much about what's going to happen, so I will drop it here and swear to you that things will be explained eventually and that I promise to not leave a single question in the air. Thanks for the review, I'm glad you ike the story.**

**Icantthinkofanick: Hola! Updatee al fin! Thanks, I'm so flattered that my head is growing so big I'm affecting world ocean tides does that sentence makes sense?**

**I'm glad you liked the sugary scenes... I try to avoid as much as possible overly deep blue scenes, so I put the sugary wherever i can to compensate But no more Leo / Chris scenes for a while, sorry. Instead of that, a cookie O**

**This've been a long chapter, so I hope you'll forgive my tardiness in updating, althought I did it far more earlier than last times **

**XD I said so, but I loved your last update with the Diary story... and the cliffy was sooo mean!**

**Thaaaanks!**

**Septdeneuf: I'm glad you sorted out the confusion, I knew it was a risk... but it was just too tempting to do the chapter that way **

**Reading my fic at school? Man, now I'm flattered!**

**And I'm sorry, it's true that nothing was really happening but it was just an impass, a way to settle a few things I had in mind... On the other hand, here's you comment... they've met... at first I wanted Chris to react badly, but then the story worked herself to the point and I thought that at that very moment Chris would be simply too much tired to have a rant.**

**Christine Marquez: Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks! Here's the update!**

**StargatAngel101: So much things I love in a single nick... or not, but it looks like... ignore me I'm glad you're liking it, and I'm glad the confusion is getting better, I'll explain everything.. just in it's due time.**

**Mic1211: Thanks!**

**Yessss! Shame on me! I don't know why I was so convinced of fetus being female... it's just been ages since I last had a look at my biology notes and I was so sure.. then my beta asked me if it was true and I did a small research and had to tell her that it wasn't TT My bad. **

**Anyway I liked it, so i let it there... I'm man and lazy,**

**StonyAngel: Rugrats? Well, thanks! And Piper will come into sense... I swear it.**

**Lark: THAAAAAAAAANKS! It flatters me!**

**Martina G: I'm glad you're liking the story, even with the confusion. And I know you said it for the best, but I'm very grateful to my beta for spending her time re-reading the fic and there's no way I would do such a thing as to fire her... mainly because she's doing it of her own free will as a favour to me and to all those who read the story. Please, keep in mind that even if I post it spacied the chapters are usually pretty long and as I already said there's just a finite amount of time we can destinate to the fic.**

**Rhia: Enthralling... that's a new word! And a very sweet one to describe the fic, I'm glad you're liking it. About the chpater title... XD thanks for telling me, I'll do my best to 'piss people OFF' from now on, but I've kind of grown attached to that chapter title U**


	17. Ups!

Here's the update!

Sorry for the delay, I hope this compensates it a bit. I'm really proud of this chapter.

* * *

"OH! For god's sake, what's so funny about it? I mean... Paige, look at how awful it must have been for him! You haven't been the nicest person to him... Ohh... you're going to feel so bad when you realise..."

Paige, who'd barely managed to settle down a little bit, calm herself enough to breath, chocked and bent down with laughter again. She nudged Phoebe, who's cheeks were also wet with tears.

"C'mon, sister... she is right!" the empath said between guffaws. "Think of the poor kid, YOU've been sooo mean to him..."

"Yeah... and I'm sorry..." Paige answered, but seeing how the youngest witch resumed her laughter after it, Piper doubted her sincerity.

_Gosh!_ Thought the youngest sister. _We're being sooo bitchy here... She was aware of it, yet she was unable to stop herself. Now 's when she asks me if I'm pregnant_

"I know it's weird..." Piper went on, not giving up. "But it's the only logical answer... you must be his mother... "

"Let me... let me get this straight..." The empath said, while her younger sister had a new fit of laughs. "We know that Chris is a half whitelighter that came from the future, from twenty years or so in the future, to save Wyatt. And we know that he knows about us and the manor. And we know that he is about twenty years old... more or less... and the logical answer you get out of all that information is that he is Paige's son?"

Something itched in Piper's head but she ignored it, the Charmed One was getting tired of repeating the same thing for like... the seventh time, only to her sisters mounting amusement.

"Can you think of a better explanation?" She asked Phoebe, sure that she would be the first to settle down, to get over it. Paige was going to need more time to accept it, of course, she couldn't imagine the surprise of such news.

The youngest Charmed had successfully control her fit in time to grab her middle sister by the arm and stop her from spilling too much information.  
"I'm not sure Chris is my son, Piper..." She interrupted whatever thought her oldest sister may had been dwelling on. "I mean, in his future I was dead, remember?"

"But it could of been a lie!" She answered, she'd already thought of that. "What better way to hide his identity than telling us that you were dead?"

Paige gaped for an answer that didn't come, so she answered. "Oook... you have a point there, darling... nevertheless... I... look, it's NOT true, ok? I'm really sure about it..."

And then, to general amazement, the older sister embraced her, tenderly, without allowing her to finish whatever she was going to say.  
"I understand... you're in denial..."

"I'm not in denial!" Exclaimed the half whitelighter. "She's not in denial, you idiot!" Exclaimed my lovely readers

"Hush, hush... I know... I know... I couldn't barely believe it... but he himself all but told me I was right..." Piper tried to sooth her, worrying when Paige began to shake in her arms. For both her sister and Chris, she really hoped the younger Charmed wouldn't have a nervous breakdown.  
"I wasn't going to tell you… I thought he should." The oldest of the Halliwell witches glared at her middle sister, who, in return, turned around to hide a snort. "But now that you know, just take it easy, ok?" Paige's tears wet Piper's shirt, and the witch felt relieved, as difficult as it may be, she was finally coming to reason.

Phoebe, who'd turned around again and was now looking at them with a blank expression, nodded in agreement.  
"What a day, isn't it?" The empath began with only the slighter pang of guilt. "With the spell, the demon, the possession, the magic going all wrong, the mini Chris, Piper's pregnancy, Chris being your son... Can you think of ANYTHING that could top what's happened until now? I mean, if a young blonde man was to cross that door in this very moment claiming to be... I don't know... Wyatt from the future, it wouldn't surprise me at all."

"Why exactly would my son come back from the future?" Piper exclaimed.

But the answer was there, wasn't it?  
Chris was here to save Wyatt, so maybe Wyatt would comeback in time to stop him.  
He probably did not want to be saved.

And the thought would have rose armies of angst in her heart if Paige hadn't chose that moment to take a step backwards and, unable to control her guffaws any longer, actually fell to the floor. She had tears pouring down her cheeks and she was laughing so hysterically that she was having problems breathing and nearly choked.

That's why they didn't hear Chris bawls immediately.  
"What the...?" Phoebe shouted, suddenly startled. But Piper did not waited for her to finish the sentence. The kid was crying so hard that she sprinted to the stairs fearing she would find a slaughter.

Fortunately the emergency wasn't a demon. Or at least no demons they could see. It was just Chris howling like mad, crying his head off while teen Chris looked at him with a mix of surprise and wonderment.  
Adult Chris, on the other hand, had both hands covering his face and was mumbling some very dirty words.

Without waiting as much as a second, Piper pushed Paige in his direction, urging her with her eyes to be motherly, while Paige, not laughing anymore, was urging her with her eyes to drop dead.

Nevertheless, the kid was crying.

"Ch...Chris...?" Paige asked worriedly, but the he wouldn't respond, just cry.  
Oh god, the witch thought, don't let him jump to Piper's neck or adult Chris will hex him six feet underground.

And by the look in the oldest future half witch's face, that's just what he was planning to do.

Teen Chris, by the way, was coolly looking at his junior self with a grin.

"Chris honey what happened?" She tried to get to the core of the things.

There were more tears and another soft swear word from the oldest half witch version, who mumbled something that only the teenager heard. Whatever it was, made him snort and shake his head.

The six years old Chris' cries relented enough for the kid to point at adult Chris.  
"Oh... what have you done now?" Phoebe asked, accusation mixed the curiosity in her voice.

"Me? I've done nothing... he's... he just... I don't know what happened to him, but it's not my fault..." The accused answered, his eyes darting to his tiny self, who began trembling.

"Ye...ye...yes... it is..." More cries and tears.

"Oh, please! You little cheater...!"

Louder cries.  
"Chris, don't talk like that to... yourself!" Piper chided him. She repeated, "What happened?"

"I don't know! How am I supposed to know?"

"He... he... he..." Again, the little kid tried to explain himself, but his grief was too much to restraint to talk. The cries began again.

Seeing that Paige had the motherly instinct of a rabid orang-utan, Piper knelt in front of the kid, who let go of Paige and embraced her.

Getting advantage of his position. Where the sisters couldn't see his face but both Chris-s could, kid Chris stuck his tongue out in mock.

"He what, honey?" The Charmed One, who'd decided that Paige would have to learn her parental skills in another situation, caressed the kid's cheek. She was completely oblivious of the 'Oooooooowwwwww, cuuuuute..." she received from both her sisters, the 'pffffff' extracted from the teenager, and the outraged growl from adult Chris.

"He... has... he has... there's something... something you should know?"

"You want him to tell us something?" She asked, trying to make sense of his words.

"No... he has to tell YOU..."

Piper turned to Chris, who was studying the point of his shoes in detail.  
"What is it?"

No answer.

The witch looked at the teenager who simply shrugged with a _Don't look at me; I'm just a casual bystander_ expression.  
Seconds went by without a reaction and Piper was getting tired.

"Chris?"

Two of them rose their head, but the question was aiming for the third one, whose shoes had never been so interesting. Leaning on the wall, next to him, the teenager half witch felt pity for himself... well, for his older version, and it didn't help when he noticed that his adult self hands, closed in fists at his sides, were trembling.

"I think... I think, that if I hadn't told you all whatever it is yet, it can wait for a while... can't it?" He looked intently to the kid, who stared back with a stern look. But at least the cries recessed into sobs.

"No... it can't. It's important, very important!" he insisted.

"You sure? I mean, look at how well we've done until now..." teen Crhis tried to use adult Chris' past arguments, but the kid simply rose both eyebrows. That was a gesture trademarked by Wyatt that he'd used for years just because it was cool to his brother. To himself, he noticed, it looked cocky and irritating. Or maybe it was irritating because it was a wordless answer. They'd both agreed earlier that they'd not been doing it that well.

"No, he must tell her and she must know it or we'll never save Wyatt." And that was like a secret code. Like the magical words that pulled a trigger in both, Piper's and Chris's mind. Save Wyatt.

The oldest witch began to turn again to look at her nephew for an answer, when Paige asked the question. "How...? Did Chris tell you that you were here to save Wyatt?"

And teen Chris decided that the time had come to allow himself a little quality time with his mother, before he'd have a fit and redecorate the room in a tk waves sort of fashion.  
"Why don't we go to discuss this to the attic?" He asked, looking at his aunts, throwing at them waves of unspoken morse code through his eyes. "I mean, we still have that demon to vanquish and all that..."

"Sure... discussion... attic... demon..." Phoebe agreed feeling the whole signal of 'get the hell out of here' emotions the teen had just threw at her. "Care to take me, sister?"

Paige nodded, although her face was that of someone who'd prefer to stay.  
"Yeah, demon and vanquish. See you in the attic."

Both witches orbed and the teenager walked to Piper who was still looking at his adult version with curiosity and a little mistrust.  
It hurt to see it, but not half as much as her absence was going hurt, he could see it in his older selves eyes and pose.

Kid Chris broke free of the witch's arms and grabbed the teenager hand in silence, he'd like to stay, but he knew that it wasn't meant to be like that.

Both younger Chris-s looked at the one who was staying, but he did not looked back, so they parted in silence for there was nothing to say.

Not for their great surprise, the attic was empty when the two future half witches arrived.  
Still without saying a word, they walked through the door, went to the stairs, grabbed their noisy aunts by the wrists, and dragged them back to the attic.

"You're no fun..." Paige complained.  
"And you shouldn't be spying on mum and us... I'm sure that we'd get livid if we found you." Retorted the middle Chris.  
"I doubt you'll be paying any attention to your surroundings for a few minutes." Phoebe countered, hardly containing a rush of tears. "Plus I can't stand this room anymore, it's like an emotional turmoil and It's breaking down my nerves. And you on the edge of tears downstairs aren't helping..."

"Let's orb to the P3... " Paige proposed. "!e'll hear them when they're finished. Besides, this could take a while and there's not a single standing chair in this room."

The Halliwells (plus Paige, who was Halliwell, at least at heart) looked around. It was true, even the Book of Shadows was resting on the floor, it's table turned into wood chips sometime in the past two days.

And so they went to P3, and so we can go back to the part of the story you're interested in.  
That is, Chris and Piper.

Or we could also go and see what happens with Leo... I mean, he'd been out of the narration for a whole chapter and a little bit more now, we should at least see if he is okay.

Leo ducked the flying beaver.

Yeah... He seems to be fine... I mean that he seems to be alive, or at least not as dead as we all know Chris is going to be later in the series.

What? The beaver?  
Well, I thought you were interested in Piper and Chris… let's forget about Leo and center our attention in on the other two Wyatt-Halliwell family members.

The fourth, by the way, is at Victor's taking his morning meal.  
That's it, back to Chris.

Don't worry, nothing major is happened in our absence and, to great surprise, nothing major is been said.

That is, Chris has not get up, grabbed Piper and started singing:

"Myyyyyyyyyyyyyyy gift is my sooooooong,  
and this one is for you.  
And you can tell everybody, that I'm you son!"

He's been, in fact, quiet and retracted, cursing his kid self. Divided by his will that pushed him to do the right thing and his heart that longed for the serenity of mind that only truth would bring.

"Did you tell them... tell you... er... you know, what happened? About Wyatt turning and all that stuff." Piper asked after minutes had come by and the young man hadn't said a thing.

"No."

Piper waited for a further explanation, but there was none. Chris was very pale, livid with rage, and was purposely avoiding her gaze. Whatever it was that kid Chris had had a tantrum about, his adult version did not wanted to share.

After a few long minutes the witch gave up.

"I'm going to the attic..." She said, although the half whitelighter hadn't even turned to watch her.

"Whatever it is... if you feel like telling me I'll be there looking for some more information about the SoulShadow"

I bet some of you didn't even remembered that the demon was meant to come back.

I didn't, and it was like... oh, shit! There was something else in the plot besides the Chris splitting! Hurry, think of something!

Chris himself hadn't thought of the demon that much and when his mother mentioned it, a couple of new, fresh weighs dropped on his shoulders.

The demon.  
Wyatt.  
Mum.  
The future.  
Bianca.

And again, that vertigo feeling saying 'don't go there'.

Bianca.

He would give nearly everything to be back with her again. She'd known what to do; she'd helped him. His hand skipped treacherously into his pocket.

Piper, who'd climbed all the way to the first floor, turned around and found the young man looking intently at something he was playing with his fingers. Turning it around, up and down.  
It was shinny, and it was round.  
Piper walked down again and sat next to Chris whose eyes were lost, not with the fugitive quality they'd had before, but lost and pained.

He was barely a grown up man, she reminded herself. A kid wearing an adult vest, trying to do the job of a titan.

Trying to change the future.

"If you change the future, she'll be back, probably..." She heard the words and then noticed that they were hers.

"When."

"Sorry?"

"WHEN I change the future, not IF."

"That's what I meant. When you change the future she'll be there, waiting for you."

"Sure... if tiny me doesn't vanquish her first." The half witch allowed himself a weary smile. "Or if she doesn't kill me."

Piper looked at him, confused.  
"But that could have happened even if she hadn't... well, died. I mean... do you know what I mean?"

Chris nodded and she realised that he'd already thought of that long before.

"Do you have a plan about how to go back, Chris? About what to do next?"

"I'm not sure there will be a place for me to go back to... when I change the future there will be a Chris that will have grown up fearless and happy, a Chris that will own his timeline and his life... and I'm glad for him." If he wasn't, his voice didn't betray him. "But that won't be my place."

"Then, why... I mean..."

"Why did I come back?"

"Yes! Why do you want to save the future so bad? You won't even be able to go back to it!"  
Chris couldn't but to laugh.

"Why do you keep this good versus evil fight, Piper? Why don't you just get the hell out of here and look for a nice house in some isolated town called Amytville or Sunnydale where nothing remotely demonic happens?"

The witch shrugged the question off. It was silly.

"I'm a Charmed One, I must do it."

"Why?"

"Well, it's my destiny."

"Really? Says who?"

"For a start, the elders."

Chris lifted an eyebrow.

"Since when do you listen to what they have to say?"

"Even if they didn't... it's not just the name, you know? There's people that needs us... there's innocents!"

Chris smiled smugly, having safely arrived to the part of the conversation he'd been heading to.  
"So are there in the future."

Piper wanted to retort something, but found herself speechless.  
"That's the reason? For the innocents?"

"It works for you."

"Yes, but I have other reasons, like my sisters and a family to protect... "

"So do I." A new smug smile and then a shrug, and his face changed into a solemn one. "But we both know that once we strip our souls looking for reasons. Once we put everything in the stack... it all resumes in the basics. There's a job to be done, and we're the best options to do it. You know you are, and I knew I was. Or at least I thought so..."

He hadn't looked at her yet, his eyes were transfixed on the ring in his hands.  
"Paige raised you wonderfully..." Piper sentenced, feeling obliged to add something. She'd expected better of him than to laugh.

"Excuse me" He apologised calming down faster than her sisters had.

"Don't worry, everybody reacts the same... I thought Phoebe would choke herself to death, and your mother... man, I'm sorry she found out! Phoebe told her, I knew I shouldn't have told anyone... however she'll come to terms, you'll see."

Chris rose a hand, interrupting her.  
"Piper... we'll run through this again. Try to heed what I say, ok? I AM NOT PAIGE'S SON..."

"Chris, she already knows. You don't have to..."

"I AM NOT PAIGE'S SON." He wasn't yelling, just talking very slowly and clear.

"But..."

"NOT HER SON"

"Well..."

"NOT."

"So..." Piper bit bite her lip. "You're telling me that you're not Paige's son?"

Chris, who'd been planning to burn the words on his mother's forehead, nodded exaggeratedly to stress his point.

"Then who are you?"

The question stopped the nodding.  
It also stopped Chris' capacity to breath or think. This question, after the last conversation with himself (both of them... and, again, this sounded like schitzo -talk) ,was not what he needed.

"I can't tell you." His mouth said in auto-mode.

"I thought you'd said that."

"Sorry." He said, and he was honest.

"But I still want to know..." Piper ignored his annoyed face and insisted. "You don't have to tell me everything, just who you are... is Chris Perry your real name?"

The half whitelighter shook his head before his mind could even think of the word 'lie'.

"Will we know you?"

"Piper..." Chris begged, the truth nagging in his throat, his other selves words echoing in his head. His soul tired of a thousand similar situations in the past days where his nerves and his will had weakened.

"Do we know your mother? Was she the witch? Or was it your father?"

"Piper, please!"

"Chris, I need to know more... I want to trust you but it's not that easy..." The oldest Halliwell looked away, searching the words to explain herself, to force him to open. "Okay, so now I know that you did come to save Wyatt, but that's just not enough! Tell me something! Who are you? Which is our relation? How can you know so much about us? Chris, please!"

She looked back and barely held a gasp, Chris face looked sculpted in granite. Calm and cool, showing no expression and no sign of life, but for an even respiration. But there was something beneath the surface, an emotion she couldn't guess.

Piper wished she had Phoebe's powers.

"What is it, Chris? What hurts so much?"

Her hand caressed his face and the gesture broke whatever charm had held the moment together. Chris backed away from her and stood up, blinking to remove the few unwelcome tears that had come to his eyes.

"Piper, thanks, but I... I can't do this, ok?" She looked disappointed but he'd made his mind up. No spoiling secrets. "I just can't; there's too much in stake for me to screw it up with personal gain and similars..."

Piper stood too, cursing herself.  
"Chris..."

_Get away, get away!_ His mind advised, currently voiced with both Bi and Victor's voices.

"No... look, I'll go to the attic ok? The others are there..." Although the others aren't, his whitelighter senses told him. No time to worry about it now. _Screw the others_, said his Victor/Bi schizo subconscious, agreeing again.

_Sigh_, he wished they'd agreed this much when they were alive. _Focus. Focus._

"I'll check the book and you should go and lay down a little bit. We don't have to worry still for a couple of hours… I'll go and wake you up later, ok? When everything is ready and..." He was already climbing the stairs up when the witch grabbed his sleeve and stopped him.

"I'm not tired, and you won't go anywhere until we finish this talk".

_Bad bad, she's in full stubborn mood now. Time to change the subject.  
_

"Piper, the SoulShadow will be back in some hours and we have to be ready for it, there's no time for chit chat now."

"No 'demon jihad' me now, young man." The witch waved it off. "Plus we can call Leo, he'll be glad to take care of the research and trap building while you and I finish this conversation."

_Ok... think of a common ground, something that would call her attention... of course she said it herself, Leo!  
_

"Call Leo?" The young witch fumed, with disdain that was powerful enough originally, he didn't need to exaggerate this time. "I thought you were in no-talking terms... isn't he in Elderland doing Elder things away from family, as always?"

_Her eyelids just twitched with anger.. . I'm so much the master upsetting her. Not that I'm proud of it, of course.  
_

"He's here when we need him!" Piper defended her husband... ex- husband.

_A little push now, but don't get her too mad...  
_

"Sure, he's always been this constant in this family lives..."

"That's not the case!" The witch retorted harshly.

_Subtle now._

Chris didn't even answered, simply rose both eyebrows in mock, turning a smug grin into a small smile of distrust.

That was the final touch, the witch threw both her hands up in the air in exasperation, aware of what Chris was doing but unable to stop herself from getting annoyed.

"Ok! Have it your way!"  
_Yessssss!  
_

The oldest charmed gave up and walked away. "I'll be making tea for the next eternity, feel free to share your feelings with me whenever you're in the mood." She said, closing the kitchen's door behind her just a little too hard.

_I'm the king! Who's the king? I'm the king! Who am I? I'm the king!_

"Don't worry! I'll be upstairs looking through the Book, no need to call dad now!" He yelled behind her, trying to conceal any gloat out of his voice. Well, not that I'm gloating over this, of course.

_I'm cool, so cool... I'm the master of Cunningness, and all the cunning shall bow at my pass!  
_

He was about to head upstairs again when there was a bustle of broken china in the kitchen immediately followed by Piper running back through the doors, her brain working at light speed so it could actually heed and understand what her ears had just heard and his mind was trying to assimilate.  
In less time than what it takes to say Chris, you're and idiot the alluded found himself being pointed at by a woman known for her ability to blow things up with her hands. He tried to recoil slowly out of her gestures general direction... but it was a little hard to do so because she was madly pointing at him and repeating once and again the word: "You!"

He ducked to the left and an old vase exploded in the entrance.  
"You!" Piper waved again, Chris bent down in time and a picture of the Charmed Ones blew up on the stairs' wall.

That got Piper's attention at least, and she put down both hands with such a hurry that left two holes in the carpet and nearly amputate his left foot.  
"You... you said..." the witch went on adding a new word to her unsuccessful way of communication. "You said Dad."

Something snapped in place in Chris' head.  
_The master of cunningness? The master of cunningness? I hope we'll meet again in this timeline so I can kick your ass, you idiot!_ Were Bianca's kind words in his mind, which shows how much he knew and still thought of her, but it had no effect whatsoever because he couldn't overhear her in top of the yells of _You're a complete idiot!_ that Victor's voice were echoing through his neurons.

At least both of the schizophrenia voices agreed with Chris on something.  
"I'm an idiot" The young man muttered, but said nothing else, waiting for Piper to continue.

"You said Dad!"  
"No." Plausible denial.  
"Yes!"  
Maybe not so plausible.

"How...? How can it be... Leo?" Now, this is just shock, instead of what you may think. She's not plainly daft, just very good at denial. " Leo is your... he? How?"

But Chris was getting slightly exasperated.  
If she asks me when did Leo and aunt Paige got together, I'll scream.

Piper's hand caressed her belly, her eyes growing with realisation.  
"Oh, my god... oh... I need to sit down..."

And she did with such a hurry that Chris barely was able to grab her before she fell to the floor.  
"Oh... my... god--- oh..."

The half witch helped her sit on the stairs.  
"Are you okay, Piper?" He asked when she failed to mange a word. It was like the most stupid things to ask, mainly because if she'd answered 'No' he'd just go make sepuku.

"It's going to be a boy." She answered, it wasn't a question.

He said nothing, still looking for a way out, strangely thinking that Wyatt, the one he'd grown up with, who would be laughing his head off.

"Chris?"  
He felt her hand on his chin, turning his face to her.

"Yes?" He asked, his pulse so fast that his heart was about to travel to the past.

"You do have your grandmother's eyes."

And my aunt's mouth, he thought while closing his eyes instinctively. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to close her touch out, to keep her breathing form caress his skin, to stop the shivers that were running up and down his spine. She was closer now, he could feel it and he was fully aware that he would not be able to stand it, that he would break down if she said another word.

So he found his way out, orbing away and ignoring Piper's yell when the blue balls and the dingling began.

Chris appeared on the top of the San Francisco gate's highest tower and would have welcomed the rain that had restarted not so long ago, it would have been quiet a good soothing therapy, if Piper hadn't been hanging on to his neck.

Do you remember the bloody blood?

It's the same, I wasn't being poetical here. I was not talking of a metaphorical weight in his soul but of a very physical Piper, her arms wrapped around his neck.  
"Where are we?"  
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Both questions where made together and since Piper's was the first to get an answer, the other was momentarily forgotten. Mainly because once she'd looked around, her hug of Chris' neck grew so tight that he found himself gasping for air. So his question sounded more like "What the hell do youAAAAAAARGH... gasp gasp gasp".

"What were you thinking, young man?" The witch fumed. "You can't drop certain things and simply disappear. It's not... it's not polite! C'mon, answer me! Say something..."

"Gasp... air... breath... can't breath..."

"Oh... sorry..." She relented her hold on him a little. "And why are we here?"

Chris decided that at least he would answer that last question. It looked less tricky than any other Piper could come up with.

"Leo showed this spot to me, it's a quiet place to think."  
"Leo as in Dad?"

On second thought, maybe it was a tricky question after all.

"Yghrfm." He answered, looking down.  
"Excuse me?"  
"Yhhhrs."  
"What was that?"  
Chris sighed.  
"Yes."  
"Oh."

Piper did not react right away, and for a moment the only sound to be heard was the traffic, muffled by distance and rain.

A couple of moments later and the witch still didn't react, that train of not-happenings went on for half a minute or so.

So madness is hereditary in this family. Chris thought when Piper burst in a fit of laughter.  
"You know? Maybe that's why I didn't told you earlier." He whined when Piper failed miserably to stop herself.

"So- sorry, Chris... It's just that now I get it, why everybody laughed when I told them about Paige being your mother."

"Not funny." He kept complaining. At the moment, staying still and watching a cactus slowly die of thirst ranked much higher on the scale of funny things than what Piper was laughing her head off about.

Of course he wasn't aware of the fact that she was running into hysterics and her brain had decided that laughing would be a better stress escape way than crying.

"Yeah... probably." The witch cooled down at last and turned to look at him.  
She wasn't laughing anymore, but she didn't looked angry or even annoyed... the aftermath had arrived. An even more dreadful moment for now it was sinking in and no one knew how she would react.

"Why Chris?"

_Play dead!_ Was Victor voice's thoughtful advice at Piper's dreaded question. _Jump off the bridge!_ Aas Bianca's.

He simply sighed, ignoring both, he'd known the question would arise sooner or later. And the sooner the better.

"I know you won't be pleased... I'm not pleased my self for lying at you all." He explained, hoping that she would understand. "The things I've done... not only to you but to other people, to Leo... the Valkyries. I used to think that the end would never justify the means, then everything happened and... shit! I just couldn't allow myself to get moral about my ways. I just..." The young man sighed, realising what he was about to add and the fact that Piper would not understand how much it hurt to admit it. " I suppose I'm not that different to him."

The half witch looked at his mother who looked back with a blank stare.

She'd just tried to start it easy asking why they'd named him Chris.

Chris her son.  
Chris.  
Her son.  
The same one she was bearing in her belly.  
It was Chris.  
And he was her son.  
Wyatt's brother.  
Chris.  
The 'you will kill this demon and you will do it now' half whitelighter.  
Mister wittiness 2004.  
The guy that came from the future.  
The one she'd thrown out of her house not so long ago.  
The one responsible for her and Leo's separation.  
Oh my... the one she'd slapped.  
The one that was patiently waiting for an answer.  
But what was there to answer? Hi Chris... want some cookies?  
Did he like cookies?  
She'd read a book about motherhood when she was pregnant with Wyatt that said that it had all the answers. Well, it didn't.  
Say something, say something!

"Blue." She blurted.

"I'm sorry?" Chris asked, uncertain.  
Through long nights in the club, he'd played in his head about a thousand scenarios of what Piper would say if she ever discovered the truth. In the best possible one, she was thrilled and cooked him waffles; in the worst, she cried and blasted his butt...  
Never had she said 'blue'.

"Blue is your favourite colour." She went on, not that it made that much sense now.

"I don't follow you."

"You've been with us for almost a year. I just tried to think of something I knew of you, something not related to Wyatt or demons." She drew a half hopeful smile. "And I found something... blue is your favourite colour, I know it because you're always wearing that blue sweater of yours..." She signalled the jumper he had on. "And I know that you hate sweet food, that you like spiders, that your favourite music player is Springsteen and that you take your coffee with two sugars."

Chris, who's favourite colour was green, loved but couldn't eat sweets, couldn't care less about spiders and wanted his coffee bitter and sugarless, nodded with a sly smile. At least she'd noticed about Springsteen... although it was probably because he'd used all the posters of the Boss that the music band company had sent them accidentally, to cover the holes in the wall of his little room in the club.

"Is there anything else you want to share with me?" She asked, smiling back. "Your favourite book, maybe?"

Chris shook his head.   
What he wanted, what he really wanted so bad that his arms and hands were itching in expectation was to hug her and never let her go.

He didn't.  
She needed time to adjust.

And when she'd adjusted, she'd ground him for weeks. Maybe then he'll manage courage to hug her.

"You're my son?" She asked.  
He nodded.  
"Mine and Leo's, am I carrying you right now?"  
Another nod.

Oh, god. Piper thought. This is reeeeaaaaaaaaaaal, or I'm having worst hangover ever.  
The witch let go of Chris, recoiling a bit and sitting down in a irony thing she couldn't identify: it was wet, but so was she.

Chris stood still, the more he told himsef that she would need a little time to get over it, the more it downed on him what had happened.

She knew.  
They all knew.  
Leo knew.  
What was he supposed to do now?

_The Play dead/ Jump off the bridge_ advices that echoed in his head sounded pretty neat for a few seconds.

* * *

Thanks for reading!

I hope you liked it... hehehe... now Piper knows just because Chris was too focused gloating over his own intelligence and cunningness to pay atention at what he was saying... ok, the stress had something to do too

I just never pictured Chris telling her all by himself, he was so sure about it that when he allowed Paige and Phoebe to tell Piper in the show I felt it wrong. But she had to find and I wanted her to knoe from Chris... and so she does

It's just the stupid thing you say because you have your head somewhere else, and then, KRAKABOUUUM!

(See Ican'tthinkofanick? I don't need the twins (Patty!) to muddle things up )

NightOwl123: Jejejeje! I like the secret weapon too I'm pretty proud of it.

The magicBringer: Thanks! I try my best with english, but most of the improvement is thanks to my beta (although I'm trying to get the knack in verbs XD).

Kilikapele: Ah! Another update! TT but not that soon I like the sweater too, it's like another character all by himself, I may even try and make iy sing and dance in a couple of chapters... now that would be a twist.

Sweater: C'mon Chris, don't be so upset... sing with me:

"Hakuna matata, what a woinderfoul word,

Hakuna matata blah blah blah blah (I've never been able to understand this part),

It means no worried for the rest of you life,

It's you problems free, philosophy.

Hakuna Matata".

Chris: That's it... I'm leaving drugs now... no more aspirines for me.

I though of giving the past Chris-s some naiveté, and they have, but just not too much because, after all, they've grown up surrendered by demons atacks and al that stuff... plus I just couldn't picture a teenage Chris being that innocent.

And you don't have to wrap your reviews, I love long reviews!

Ican'tthinkofanick: Thaaaaaaaaaanks! You're so sweet! I love when you think my chapters are good because I love yours /

"Yeah Chris you'd been kidnaped by a demon and will recieve a memo about it any time soon!"

XDDDDD I laughed so much with that. Yep, he'd known if he'd been kidnapped... nevertheless, in the Charmed universe, who knows?

_"Where is psycho Chris, speaking of white doves?"_ Hehehehe, that's like the million dollar questions, you'll find out in the next chapter... probably!

_Ahh now it came to me in the middle of Chris grabbing the aspirins... Psycho Chris is with leo... oh my god, poor LEO he is going to kill him... or maybe the spell works and he is able to sooth him? _

XD Who knoooooooows? I do, and you will soon... then again, or not.

Ritagarcia45: Sooooorry you had to wait do long for this chapter, I hope it was worth it. jejeje, about Paige and Phoebe's reaction to Piper's little wrong dicover... well, I thought it was the obvious way.

Rhia: You said:

_just to clarify assuming it dosent spoil anything are there three or four of our favorite whitelighter around? _

It would spoil something, yet not that much, so there four Chrises...  
_and will psyco chris meet his future selves? _

This would be a bigger spoiler, you'll se soon, I promise.

Wonder: Thaaanks! Hehe, yes it was less confusing.

ChristineMarquez: I'm glad you liked the chapter and about maniac Chris... wait just a little bit more, please.

Insanechildfanfic:thanks

Bunn2007: XD Everbody asks me about psico Chris... ah, my you padawans, patience, patience...

Magicalprincess: Ugh here...

Septdeneuf: Thanks! I'm glad that you liked it... and you'll find about psico Crhis pretty soon...

Lark: Best chapter? Uoh thanks! Uoh... I guess no bribes for me... sorry for the delay.

StonyAngel: You're right... five version, not four... I didn't counted on phoetus Chris!

Ennui de Morte: Thanks! Everybody asks about psico Chris and Leo.. uh... you'll see! I'm glad you like the interactions!

Daniele Marx: I'm happy to hear that the stpry makes you both, laugh and crys, for that's the idea

Cassi: This solved one of the questions, but please, feel free to stay toll the end!

Update already: Hullo! Hehe, here's the update


	18. Chris has father issues? You think?

Hiiii!

First I want to thank all those who send flowers to my family... but no, the rumours of my early dead were just that, rumours.

Now being serious, I'm really sorry for this delay... ok, two months is a delay, this is more in the lines of uh... I'm sure there's a correct word to end this sentence, i just don't know which one TT

The thing is that I lost my beta (not her fault at all, just things that happen) and live, jobs and those small little nuisances got un the way... so I all but forgot about the fic... not forgot per se but... hum... well... I should have thought for a great excuse XP

The thing is that i had this chapter written for year... months... and yesterday I just woke up decided to post it.

So here it goes... please, be kind, for it's not been beta-tested and it may have more in common with sweddish than english.

Thanks for all the reviews, and I'm reeeaaaaally sorry TT

Big round cookie for everyone... and tea... and sweets... and uh... a coke?

* * *

"You're my son?" She asked.  
He nodded.  
"Mine and Leo's, am I carrying you right now?"  
Another nod.

Oh, god. Piper thought. This is reeeeaaaaaaaaaaal, or I'm having worst hangover ever.  
The witch let go of Chris, recoiling a bit and sitting down in a irony thing she couldn't identify: it was wet, but so was she.

Chris stood still, the more he told himsef that she would need a little time to get over it, the more it downed on him what had happened.

She knew.  
They all knew.  
Leo knew.  
What was he supposed to do now?

The Play dead/ Jump off the bridge advices that echoed in his head sounded pretty neat for a few seconds.

Remember Piper?

The oldest Charmed One?

With a serious subtlelty problem?

Married... ex-married to an angel?

Mother of the twice blessed?

Sister of Phoebe, Paige and the late Prue?

Also mother of the twice pissed off?

Yeah, the one that's sitting in the highest tower of the Golden Gate?

The pregnant... oh! Yes, I see that you know who I'm talking about... well... she won't be in this chapter, neither Chris will.

Now... those who closed the browser... that was very bad mannered!

Lots of important things can happen to the other two sisters and the other two Chris'... yep! Two Chris' for those who stayed.

Who probably won't be in the chapter, again, is Leo.

Probably.

It depends on what happens in the P3. I mean, if the witches and half-witches there are resting or playing chess, we may skip their current doings and go back to Piper and Chris. Or to Leo.

Let's see.

Paige and Phoebe were sitting in one of the couches, resting their heads and trying to make Leo appear for the thousand time. But the elder was nowhere to be seen.

"Leooooo! Can you please, please, please insert swearing words here come down this very moment before I kick your brain out of your head?"

And Phoebe was getting tired of it.

"He's probably in elderland." Said teen Chris, sitting in a table a few seats away. He and his tiny self were doing an experiment on human behaviour.

They were playing chess one against the other.

Which was fine because they'd both agreed that there was not a most suitable candidate to play against in the room than Chris Perry. And the truth was that, for the first time in both kids live, they were really enjoying it. At least the game was lasting a bit more than fifteen movements (which was kid Chris' record) or six movements (which was teen Chris' one).

"How would you know?" the empath asked, adjusting a bag of ice in her head.

"He's always there." The kid pointed out, moving a figure and trying a very complicated movement that probably has some russian name like the _Tovarisch_ movement or the _Potemkin_ overture... or something like that.

Kid Chris knows it's name, and so does teen Chris, but I'm afraid that, unless them, I know as much about chess as I know about nuclear phisics.

"Should we head back?" Paige asked, changing the subject. Leo seemed to be a big taboo in all Chris' ages.

"Not yet." Teen Chris recognised the movement his younger self was using mainly because he'd used it quite a lot not so long ago and moved the... the one with the crown at the top is the queen or the king?... well, he moved it several squares down.

Kid Chris used that word he'd recently learnt from his dad, but did so in a low voice that passed unnoticed to his aunts. His olders self just couldn't care less.

"We'll need a little more time to tell Piper the truth..." he explained at his aunts questioning look.

"Yeah... we looked pretty disturbed" the youngest Chris agreed, moving the tower to secure the king.

"You two really enjoy playing Gollum, do you?" Phoebe asked not very nicely. The ice was melting and her patience was melting with it.

But none of the present Chris' cared about her tone. They just smiled, mischeviously.

"Aaaaah, my precioussssssss... we're doomed, my treasure..." sissed kid Chris, rising both feet in the chair and curling upon himself.

"Show off..." Paige said, laughing. The kid was pretty good at it.

"Show off? Show off? The hobbit doesn't like us, my precioussss, but we know better. " Teen Chris continued, curling too. "...yes we know better than that... Plus when the mother finds about us, she's going to freak out, my love... yesss, she will freak and we will need time to adjust... _Gollum! Gollum!_"

The youngest Charmed laughed out loud at his nephews impersonation.

"You can bet she's gonna freak." the witch said, turning her sister, but Phoebe wasn't listening, she was watching teen Chris. Paige loked at him too, remembering Piper's earlier outburst.

The young half witch looked back, his face a bundle of unexistant expressions, if they'd expected some reaction after Pipers harsh words te night before, they got none. Somehow, he reminded the empath of Piper. Her sister had have that same look of "everything's just fine and shinny" lately.

Chris rised both eyebrows, silently questioning their looks and smiled a smile as cheerful as a drown kitten.

"You'll have to take it easy on her for a while, she'll probably have it difficult to come to terms..." Phoebe said when it was obvious that Chris was not going to disolve himself in tears. The teenager nodded.

"You're right... at last I hope she sees the bright side of it." The teenager said, while making some probably very smart attack with his tower. When he noticed that everyone was looking at him, wondering what he'd mean, he went on. "Well the bright side as in _you're not losing a nephew but gaining a son._"

That remark took the attention away from Chris' current emotional state, which was it's original intention, and brought laughs that echoed through the empty club.

Or it wasn't that empty?

As the laughs bounced through the walls and ceiling, across the stage and behind the tables, some shadows in the corner failed to move.

Yes, the club was empty but for them.

So let's let them there for a little while and get our asses back to the Golden Gate.

There's two elders there but no witches.

"My gown is golden." says one elder.

"Mine is more golden." Answers the other one.

"Damn! What are tose mad guys with golden robes doing in the top of the tower again?" says a random taxi driver.

What? Taxi drivers are magical beings!

And we jump again, out of there and right into the manor where everything looks just the same it looked when they left.

Not that everything is the same, of course. Or at least that's what Piper would say. She, by the way, is seatting in the kitchen table with a cup of tea in her hands and her son no where to be seen.

Chris, nowhere to be seen

She wasn't over it yet.

She suspected that it would take her some weeks to get over it, probably a year. Only that we know that she won't have that much time, don't we?

Chris was upstairs, he'd asked her if he could take a shower and she'd answered that yes, of course he could. Did he wanted a towel? She could give him a towel, but of course, silly her, he already knew where the towels where, did he? Ha – ha - ha Yes of course, he'd seen her putting them in the closet at the top of the stairs a hundred time the past months ha – ha - ha. Did they put the towels in the same place in the future? No, of course he couldn't answer that question, ha – ha – ha, how silly of her not to know that knowing where the towels closet was going to be in a few years could change the whole history in even worse ways, yes ha-ha-ha she understood. Future consequences. Ha-ha-ha. No she was fine, thanks. Ha – ha – ha...

Piper dropped her head in the table.

THONK.

She did it again.

THONK.

And again.

THONK.

And again.

THONK.

That felt good. The table was solid, reliable. You would always know where you were standing with a table.

Wood, legs, maybe a mantlepiece, perhaps a couple of drawers.

There's no way you would wake up one day and discover that your table was pretending to be your bed. Or your fridge, or your car. Or your whitelighter.

No, she'd never bought it if her table had pretended to be her whitelighter.

The door opened and Chris entered with a couple of Leo spare trousers, a shirt and a towel in his head.

"Do you want some tea? Cookies? I can make panckakes..." the witch asked, feeling the uncomprehensible need to feed him.

"Nah... I'm cool, thanks er... hu... thanks, Piper"

"You welcome."

He sat in front of her, looking transfixed at the amazing box of cereals in the marble. Piper stood still, taking sips of her tea and thinking of a good thing to say.

Should she be hugging him? Well, that would feel... weird to say the least.

"I'll take some tea." Chris said after a while, fearing that the silence was going to steal his tongue and hide it somewhere far away.

He did so and took a small sip.

"It's good."

"It's darjeeling." Piper felt the need to explain.

"I know."

"It's my favorite."

"I know."

"Do you want some sugar?"

"No, thank you I like the tea without sugar."

"Oh."

"But thanks."

"You welcome."

"I have cookies."

"I'm not hungry."

"Oh... yes."

Chris took another sip.

"Is good."

"It's darjeeling."

"I know."

"This is getting stupid"

"I know."

By the way, I remember I said that Piper and Chris wouldn0t be in this chapter.

I was lying.

"Who knows about it?"

Chris told her, and Piper wasn't happy.

"So basically you told everyone but me?"

"I didn't told anyone!" he argued. "They found out thanks to your spell and the damn _SoulShadow_..."

"Yeah... about that... sorry."

Chris shrugged.

"You've apologised like a hundred times already... drop it. I should have thought you'd do it. Nevertheless I'd like to take a look at it, if you don't mind... maybe we can know how to stop this charade before it blows up in our faces."

The witch nodded, looking around for the notebook. It was in the marble, among the few papers that her sisters had been able to save from the attic destruction.

While she looked through the pages Chris sorted the papers restlessly.

He'd been right, he should have never let her... let them know. Now everything was uneasy between him and Piper.

_Yesterday she slapped you, throw you out of the manor, tried to kill you and finnally cursed you... I think that UNEASY is an advance in your late relations._ Chris cursed his little Victor voice and grabbed a random piece of paper, it was a spell.

He read it.

He read it again.

He checked the back of the paper, looking for some other writing.

"And do it _schlok_?" he asked Piper. "What's a _schlok_?"

The witch grabbed the spell and read it.

She read it again.

She checked the back of the paper, looking for some other writing.

"This spell is awful!" she exclaimed, fuming and throwing it to the floor where it slipped under the kitchens cabinet. "And the spell it's not here." Piper put the notebok back to it's place and fumed. "I hate when Phoebe and Paige... when your aunts move things out of their place."

"I know..." he said, evenly.

The witch looked at him with a mild surprise and smiled.

"Sure you do... and you and Wyatt probably do the same, don't you? I bet your bedroom is as messy as hell... even worse."

Piper watched amused how Chris blushed a deep shade of red.

"Not that bad!"

"Sure."

"Really! Our bedroom is not that bad!..." he exclaimed, and then added to himself _At least, not Wyatt's part of the room_.

"Our? You two sleep in the same room?" the witch asked, wondering if he was about to finnally open up a little bit. "Does that means that your aunts are still living with us in the manor?"

"Oh no! They live in their own places." Chris explained, and he had to be really tired to be talking that openly about the future. Piper couldn't help but to go on.

"Then?"

"You moved Wyatt into my room when the triplets were born..." he explained.

Piper's heart skipped a beat.

"Triplets? Like in 'four of them'? Four?"

"Yeah... they fit barely in the house, but we got used to the space pretty fast."

"Uh..."

"With you having the twins a year later..."

"Twins!..." Piper gave a second thought at it. "You're lying!"

"Got you!" Chris exclaimed, trying unsuccesfully to hide a laugh.

"You... you... you cheater! Will I have more children, then?" Piper was not one to give up.

"Sure, for the time I turn ten you already have a football team at home!"

"You're lying."

"Then don't ask me."

"Ok... no more questions." She surrendered for the moment.

"In fact is my turn..." said Chris, grabbing the box of cereals and eating a handful of them before continuing. Once it was obvious that Piper was not going to go all mad at him, he'd rediscover his stomach and found it empty.

"Your turn for what?"

"For the questions... What happened? What's all the spell about exactly?"

_Come to think of it... the zoo may not have been a good place to run to._ Leo thought as yet another beaver flyed across the air in his general direction. The elder barely stopped it in mid air before the poor thing smashed itself into the ground.

"C'mon, Chris... just don't do this, let's talk!" he exclaimed, retreating a little bit more into his hidden spot.

"Talk? You wanna talk?" Chris' yelled from the distance he'd managed to keep between them. "Sure... come here! Let's talk."

It was a trap, he'd fallen for it the first time and got impaled by a weathercock. It'd hurt, no matter how dead he was.

Chris hadn't added anything else, so the elder tried again to talk some sense in him. He'd stopped trying to do so face to face when Chris had thrown him a bear a few minutes ago, so now he was shouting at his son from behind a small hut of junk.

"I just want to make you understand! You're in the past! I'm Leo, I'm no shapeshifter!" Leo waited for an answer but got none, he just hoped it meant something good. "You came to the past! You wanted to save Wyatt! Chris, listen to me... you came here to stop the future, to save your brother..."

"I don't want to save Wyatt, dad... I want him dead." Chris voice sounded just behind him and before he could even think of orbing, a new pain exploded in his head and the elder fell to the ground.

"Did it hurt, daddy?"

Leo opened his eyes and watched his son through a courtain of red pain. Chris was holding a big fork, it's spikes wet with his own blood. The kid smiling face was a nightmare of madness.

"I told you! I'm the real Leo, I'm your father. Listen to me..."

Chris kneeled down, and Leo forgot all about his smile when he looked at his empty eyes. There was nothing there, no soul, until the boy reached his height and looked him in the eyes too. Then Leo saw something, and it wasn't the horrifying madness he'd been fearing. It was mirth.

"Oh, but dad... I believe you."

The back of the fork came down again and cracked Leo's skull so hard that, for a second, he thoght that he'd died. He hadn't, and he found so when Chris kicked him in the side and his voice filled the air around him.

"C'mon, Leo... this is such a merry reunion, don't fall asleep so fast. I learnt a new couple of tricks lately, some things that weren't in the book of shadows... I want you to see what I've learnt, dad. I want to make you proud. Will you be proud, daddy?"

"Proud of what?" Leo looked up at his son, wondering what he was going to do. More worried than afraid.

"Hush now, Leo... I'm trying to remember..." Chris eyes were slightly lost and he was holding a sharp knive. "How was it?"

Taking advantage of the half witch absentmindness, Leo began to orb away, heading to some place where he'd be able to think of a way to stop his son without hurting him, before someone got hurt. He didn't made it nowhere for the moment he'd start disappearing, a tk wave throw his body overhead the small hut and right into the cocodriles pit.

Leo fell into the dark, cold, dirty water and swallowed some of that dark, cold, dirty and nauseating liquid also called water.

The elder got to the surface again in time to see a really big cocodrile approaching him with a hungry stare. The angel throwed at him the elder equivalent to a _try to bite me and you'll end your days like a handbag_ glare and the huge lizard decided that, for once, he would go for a low cal diet and turned around.

When Leo tried again to orb, he couldn't.

"I hope you don't mind, daddy..." Chris voice came from the top of the pit, high and clear, even happy. "I just blocked all orbing activity around here for a while... I thought it would be better, just so aunt Paige or some elder won't interrupt us."

"You can't block elders from orbing." The man stated, his body already healing his pains. "It's not possible."

Chris laughed again and Leo suddenly remembered the protection stones the half whitelighter had shown them yesterday.

The boy talked before he could ask the question.

"But you can, Leo... you can... you just have to be willing to do a sacrifice big enough... willing to spill enough blood."

The elder had arrived to the artificial lake shore and was looking for a way to climb up. The cocodriles were keeping themselves occupied with other things, like trying that new taste called veggie food they'd just grown interest in.

"That's dark magic..."

"Very clever..."

"But you can't... you don't... who taught you?"

"Lord Voldemort..." the crazy witch laughed at his father dumbfounded expression before exclaiming."Got you!"

With a nonchalant jump, he came down, closer to Leo.

"I was lying... In fact I just found some dark books in some dark places... I'm not an expert if that's what worries you, just think of it as a hobby. Something I do when I'm not hunting demons."

"Dark magic and demons hunting? Sounds like a live of fun..." Leo was trying to win time, to find a way out that didn't involve lightning the half witch.

"I used to play chess with grandpa but then he died and... you know, dark magic was a good new option."

"Victor's dead?"

The thing, the really worrying thing, though Leo while his body was violently thrown outside of the cocodriles fossa, was that there was no way to guess which were te right answers or the right questions. Victor, for a start, looked like the wrong subject.

The elder crashed into the ground with a sickening noise of broken bones and knew that he was not going to be able to stand for a while. Chris orbed right next to him.

"Did I hurt you, daddy?"

"I thought... I though that you'd stop orbing."

"Oh... I did... I stopped your orbing but kept mine." The half witch sat down with his legs crossed and pocked (touched with his finger 'point-point-point') the elders ribs. That hurt too.

"That's a hell of a spell..." Leo said, trying to recoil, but every movement throwed waves of pain through his body.

"Dad... you can be so short sometimes..." the young man said in a condescendent tone.

"I'm not following you..."

"Sighs... i was hoping to see the surprise in your eyes when you realised by yourself... but that's not going to happen, so... think of it, what's the main element in dark magic?" the half whitelighter smiled complacent at him, like if he was talking to a extremly slow kid, and when Leo failed to inmediately respond he pinched him again, hard enough to force a shriek. "You know the aswer, Leo... I know you do."

"B- Blood."

"Great!" Chris applauded cheerfully. "And how powerfull does a spell that can trap elders have to be?"

A new pinch, now in his back. It hurted the same.

"V- Ve- very..."

"Very powerful, neat! You're doing very good. Now, a new question... which is the most powerful blood?"

Leo did not waited for the pinch to answer now.

"Holy... holy blood."

"And the last one... which is the holiest blood ever? Which are the avatars of goodness that carry such kindness through their veins?"

"Whi... whitelighters." The truth of the answer carried him away. "You've spilled a whitelighters blood! Are you an idiot?"

"Well... I'm doing so now... ain't I? And be careful dad, or I may stop this game and start again with the previous one. I liked your flying version."

"I don't mean that... I mean... you can't..." Leo put himself up and into his elbows, spitting blood. "Whitelighter's blood is sacred, using it to dark magic you're cursing his soul, you're endangering the whitelighter's mere existance."

Chris shrugged, getting up. "At least you can't say I'm that selfish."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, let's put it this way..." the witch said, out of his sight. "I kind of carry my own magical supplements with me."

Leo looked up from his position, trying and managing to stand in his knees but not getting any further. Chris had rolled up a blood soaked sleeve and was showing him his forearm brutally slashed. He closed his eyes in disgust but couldn't close his ears to Chris laughs.

"C'mon father... it's a mix of a charmed one and a whitelighter's blood. You can say what you want about me, but can't say I'm not ressourceful."

Still unable to look, Leo finnally stood up ignoring the soaring pain in his ribs.

"Chris... I... I..." what was there to say? _I'm sorry I was such a lousy father_ didn't seem to fit there, nor _I'm sorry your maniac brother made you suffer so much you lost your mind_. And definetly _You're grounded_ was out of question. "Chris."

But then, where to start?

Maybe by looking at him.

Still revolted by the blood, Leo looked again at his son, afraid of what he would see... and, truth to be told even at expenses of the drama sense of the moment, at first he saw nothing. That is until he looked down and found Chris curled in a ball in the ground.

"Chris?" Leo said for third time, but his psichotic son did not reacted. He just stood there, all wrapped around himself and with his eyes transfixed in his bloody, and still bleeding, arm. Leo bent down out of worry and grabbed the boys wrist, in what could have been one of the most stupids and painful moments in his live after death.

It wasn't. That is, Chris did not decide that such an offence should be rewarded with an unpleasant new way of causing pain.

Probably because he wasn't all there.

And the small part that was there was looking hopelessly at his own arm.

"It hurts." He said while removing his arm of the elder's touch, but then he just put it back slowly. "Can you heal it, daddy?"

And his voice wasn't that of the mad boy he'd been trying to sooth, neither it was that of his kid self. It was pleading and full of sorrow, not childish but begging, soacked in pity and dispair.

Leo did as he was told and cured his son, wondering how the sweet overexited kid had turnedinto this... into... did Chris actual state had a name? He was crazy. Was he treatable...? but then again, he'd meet his older version, their own Chris and all in all, allowed by the little prespective that having had such a close reunion with the half witch eighteen's self could give him, Leo was able to assure that his oldest version of Chris wasn't that much crazy after all. With a remarked stress on the _that much_

"Are you feeling better?" he asked, fearing a new outburst. But Chris had grown quiet and was simply rocketing, looking still at the blood in his arm and tapping his head with the other hand. "Chris?"

"Make them stop, daddy... make them stop..."

"Make who stop what?"

"They won't stop they keep talking... they yell and they are begging. They want me to do something! And they are all here."

Leo looked around. They were still alone.

"Where? Where are... oh my god, stop that!" Leo grabbed the young man shoulders and stopped him, for the moment he'd turn around, the kid had begin hitting his head to the ground so fiercly that he had blood all over his face.

"They're here..." the half witch grabbed a handfull of hairs and pulled them fiercly. "They're here and they won't shut up! They keep yelling and complaining... they keep... STOP WHINNING, DAMN IT!" The elder was unable to restrain his son as he backed away holding his head still. "Stop you prissy stupid souls, DIE, DIE RIGHT AWAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE! I can't! I can't do it! I CAN NOT DO IT!"

"Take it easy! C'mon buddy, calm down!" Leo tried to grab the crying half witch by the shoulders, to pull him into an embrace and sooth him enough to heal the wound. "Ssssht! It's okay... It's okay, i'm here... I'm here..." Leo let his elder powers flow through his veins and to the gash in the boy's head and Chris steadied himself, looking at the golden soft beam that was easing his pain.

"You're here." He said, rasing a hand and touching Leo's one, the source of the glow.

"Yes, buddy, I'm here... I'm here..."

"Here... you're back... it's time..." Pulling the hand back the young man touched the gash in his forehead. "Hurts..."

"It will stop."

"No, it won't... it will keep hurting forever... but that's good. Pain's good. Pain brings me back when I'm lost in the voices, when the drown me..."

"We'll fight the voices..." The elder wondered what he was talking about, and nearly let go of him, startled, when Chris caressed his face with his blood stained hand.

"They're gone now... pain scares them away." With tremblous movements Chris kept touching his father's face.

"I don't understand you, Chris..." Leo smelled and felt the blood his son was leaving in his skin and had to supress a nausea. The half witch was nearly healed now.

"You will... " pushing himself away with unexpected force, the half witch stood on his knees and looked at his father with a new smile.

"_Holy Blood, heir of the powers three,_

_Out of your bounds I set you free,_

_Good or evil, feel the same,_

_Blood of Halliwells, heed your name._

_Pain and sorrow, fire and ice,_

_Through my will you will arise,_

_Boil the skin and burn the bone,_

_merry and peace he shall feel none_"

To descrive the pain Leo felt right to that moment would've been up to impossible for someone who hasn't felt it.  
I could say that he felt a thousand small needles puncturating his sking and scartching his skull, slowly perforing it's way to his braing where they burned like fire.

I could say that it was like if someone had grabbed his head and was repeteadly smashing into a ground full of broken glass.

I could say that Prometeus would have been sorry for him, that he would have refused to change their situations.

I could say that it was like beeing hit in the head by a train, without dying, so you'd have to feel each and every single of it's wheels pass over your skull.

I could use all the metaphors I want and yet not be able to make you understand how he felt right in that moment, when his son finished his spell and all hell broke loose in leo's head.

Fortunately, it didn't last long.

"_Holy Blood, heir of the powers three,_

_back to your bounds I must put thee,_

_for this evilness you must shame,_

_Blood of Halliwells, heed your name._

_Retreat your power,_

_Stop this deed,_

_The angry lower,_

_Of pain get rid."_

"What the hell?"

The elder heard his son curse right in front of him and opened the eyes, feeling sore and dumb. The pain was gone, yet he left his both hands clasped around his head out of fear that it may break if he let go. A blurry Chris was standing in front of him, looking around in confusion, or so Leo thought, and his blue sweater was now half dark purple with blood.

"Who did that?" yelled the maniac half witch. "Wyatt? Wy, is it you?"

Not fully aware of what he was doing, Leo took the opportunity to back away, looking around too, searching for the origin of the voice. But Chris was not going to made it that easy for him, as he found when he was levitated six feet up of the ground and dropped.

"Where do you think that you're going, Leo?"

He didn't had the aim to protest or to try to talk some sense in him. In fact he barely managed to stop his powers from setting free in auto preservation. Chris had slashed his forearm again and was begining a new incantation while the elder found himself unable to do anything but to watch at the kid as he spilled the red liquid again all over his father.

"_Holy blood, heir of the..._"

A blue blur crossed leo's vision and Chris was thrown a good ten feet in the air and several more to the side, landing in the cocodriles pit again. The lizard scrambled away from him like cocroaches.

"Damnit... that was a darn unpleasant spell... how are you?"

Leo looked from the spot where his son had been three seconds ago to the spot where Chris was standing now. Only that this Chris had longer hair and a shadow of a beard wanna be. And his eyes were... well, they simply were there.

"Chris? What...? How? Did you changed? How did you...? What?"

"Those are a lot of questions and we don't have time to..." he did not finished the sentence, or if he did, it was while flying fast right into the small hut behind which Leo had hide a few minutes ago.

"Who the hell was that moron?" Psicho Chris had thrown himself up from the fossa and landed more or less smoothly in the ground."And why did he looked like me but with a horrible hairstyle?"

"Would you all please stop going at my hair?" Chris stood a little shakily in the hutt mess he'd caused while landing. "And you... I will call you the Lekter version, if you don't mind,... you, stop being such a jackass."

Psico witch glared at the demon, startled.

"What? Now, listen to me, you horribly old and worn shapeshifted version of me. I was doing something really important here... family bonding... and you just came and broke the spell, so now I have to do it again." Ignoring, or more probably, fogetting about his still bleeding left forearm Chris decided to have a go to his right one and tried to cut it with a broken piece of glass.

But the glass flyed away at a gesture of the oldest Chris.

"Hey! That will leave a mark, you idiot! And what does worn means? I'm young and pretty, you lunatic from hell!"

Psico Chris waved his hand at the shapeshifter demon, the shapeshifter demon, that is, adult Chris, waved his, and both waves collided and disappeared in mid air.

Psico Chris did it again, adult Chris stopped it.

And two more times Psico Chris tried it, and twice the adult half witch protected himself.

Finnally the younger man stopped.

"Who are you?" he asked, the shadow of a suspicions growing in his face.

"I'm you. An older version of you."

"That's crazy talk. What do you think that I am? A loony?"

"Me? Noooo... how could I think that of you... please... such an example of a straight mind..." stated the oldest half witch.

"What are you suggesting?"

From the ground, Leo heard Chris snorting.

"I'm suggesting nothing, I'm saying it, you are CRAZY."

"No I'm not."

"You're too."

"I'm not."

"Yes."

"No."

"CRRRRRAAAAAZZZZZZY!"

"Shut up!"

The, indeed, crazy witch tried to tk again the annoying git, but the alluded blocked him again.

"Make me, you loner."

"I'm NOT crazy."

Now the snort was a dry laugh, yet the elder saw something else. Even while he was making fun of himself, of the younger Chris, there was a horrified look in his eyes. His hands where trembling and some of the words he was ushering so nonchalantly seemed to be carving it's way into the young man soul.

"Yes, you are! You're so out of your mind that you've lost track of it. You're so crazy you scared the hell out of Mike Myers. Your madness is worth a quilted room and a couple of lobotomies!" The horror was still there, but now it was mixing. Mixing with anger and some weird shame. "You wouldn't recognize common sense if it bited your butt. Reality is a lie someone told you long ago and you can't remember. If life was a movie, you'd be the guy with the sac in the head and a butcher's knife in your hand! And that's just half how crazy you're!"

Looking at his adult son, Leo wondered how the guy had fooled them all in the past when it was so easy to read his emotions in his manners, in his face and in his eyes. Something hit his side and forced him to look back at the other version, Psico Chris had both hands in his ears, trying to cover his other self words, or maybe trying to stop his own inner voices, it was hard to guess. He wasn't yelling but repeating some mantra in a low even voice that Leo could not understand.

The elder was hit again, and yet one more time before he understood those were tk waves coming from the youngest half witch who looked close to have a fit... what the hell did Chris think that he was doing?

"Chris..." the elder tried to warn him. "Chris, I don't think you should..."

"Shut up, Leo!"

"Shut up, Leo!"

Well, at least both version of his son were able to agree in something.

"My head, hurts." Chris' childish complain stopped him from insisting further.

"What are you talking about, you whinny boy?" but even when asking, adult Chris was already raising a hand to his temple. "Damn... damn damn damn damn... not nowwwwww..."

"My head hurts!" the younger version was again curled in a ball. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! HUUUURTS! IT'S NOT... IT'S NOT MY FAULT, IT'S NOT... PLEAAAAAASE!"

Leo turned to the version of his son who was less inclined to skin him alive for an answer, but did not asked the question. Chris was looking at his younger self with a stern look on his face, cheeks blushed and watery eyes. The elder thought, at first, that watching his own state at such a younger age was breaking whatever wall he'd builded around himself. But Chris' hand was still in his temple, massaging it slowly and his lips were a thin line of determination that blocked all moans he was willing to let go.

"MAKE IT STOP!"

The wave got both, Leo and Chris, by surprise by it's viciousness and throwed them right back into the cocodriles pit. At this moment the creatures had decided to cooperate and where trying to make a lizard castle and emigrate. They'd heard that in the hippos cage you could have a fine live.

The elder managed to grab Chris in middair and stop his fall at expenses of himself, it wasn't that bad because they fell in the water.

That is, is that was really water.

As both resurfaced, Leo spit what he'd swallowed and praied to whatever higher being was listening that cocodriles did not make they depositions in the water.

He helped Chris help him move to the shore and both stood there for a second, trying to regain their breath.

"What the hell are you doing, Leo? What's this shit?" Chris complained, still massaging his forehead. "Why haven't you blasted his ass? You're an elder and I know that you can beat the hell out of me now, so you should be able to beat the hell out of that whinning me."

"I... I can't do that." He spitted a little bit more. "I could really hurt you."

"So now you care about hurting me? How touching."

"Hey, I never touched you!" complained he elder feeling like crap.

"No, I swear... that would just have been too much... aunt Phoebe? Well, she's young and beauty, I can bare that... but you? I'd cut my own throat..."

"What are you...?"

The halfwitch decided it wasn't the right moment for certain discussion, there would never be a right moment for that discussion, so he just ignored Leo and went on.

"Plus I have one word for you, Leo..." Chris rised a finger. "Valha--- daaaaaaammmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!" not finishing the word, the young man bent down, pressing his palms over his eyes. "Sssssssssstoooopppp thhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaat!"

"Chris, what's it? What happens?"

The alluded shook his head in negation. "Stay aside, it will pass.. it will pass... it's just that all this messing with my head is opening old wou- uuuuuurgh! Would you pleeeeaaaaase stun me unconscious? Not me me, I mean Lekter me."

"Chris, I can't do that!"

"You did! Damnit, Leo, you broke my arm yesterday, now can you break my skull today?"

Realization dawned on Leo like a bucket of cold water. He'd lied. He'd said he'd never touched him, but he had. And not one but two to say the least.

"I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't... I'... "

"Oh! Damn it! Leo! Forget about it, I don't care! I kidnapped Wyatt you got angry, if you'd kidnapped Wyatt I'd boiled you alive! Now, go – and – knock – him – OUT! You have my permission. I won't be angry at you, I won't complain and i swear there will be no traumas!"

"Chris, i can't... i'm sorry... i just... I just went and had waffles with you, i can't go now and electrocute you!"

"Waffles? I blackmailed you into waffles?"

"You did not blackmailed me into waffles. You were hungry."

"And you gave me waffles? Do you have the least idea of what effect waffles have on me?"

"I do now..."

One of the cocodriles, the one that had managed to climb all the way out of the pit and leave behind those crazy hairless apes found himself wondering when he'd learnt to fly before falling between a couple of the aforementioned bald apes. He scurried away into the water just in time to avoid the voice full of madness of the third ape.

Cocodriles had been good at mad hairless apes since one of them decided that it was a good idea to strip all his clothes, wear a piece of panther's fur and cross the jungle from tree to tree yelling at the top of his lungs. How the man ever managed to hunt with such a unsubtle method of approach was completly out of their comprehension, thought.

The thing is that cocodriles had in their genes a sixth sense for levels of madness... the tree jumping guy wold have been a model of strightmindness in comparision to the mood changing guy that was talking from the top of the pit.

Cocodriles does not laugh, therefore that one was not able to distinguish the fact that psico Chris was not talking but laughing.

"Leo.. you should really, relly, really, get over your parental problems and leave me unconscious." Adult Chris stated grimly.

"I can't do that! " Leo complained hoplessly, he was already feeling guilty enough. "And why did you began mocking him?"

"I had a plan..." the half witch confessed looking at himself. Psico version had changed laughs for cries and was holding his head again. "Damn... looking at it from outside... I did was all that crazy..."

"You look better now... if that's from any help."

"It's not..."

"You were going to tell me about your plan."

"No I wasn't... I was going to tell you how little do I wan't to approach him and how glad would I be if you could go upthere and beat the crap out of me."

"Sorry."

"Hey, you two!" Psico Chris yelled from upside. "What's this? Why does he gets family bonding and I don't?"

"You're hearing him, Leo... he's asking for some BDSM..."

Leo looked at him mortified.

"Okay, okay... I get it, you can bail on me but not beat me. Charming."

"_Holy Blood, heir of the powers three,_

_Out of your bounds I set you free,_

_..."_

Both turned their head to look up. Psico Chris was drawing some figures in the air with his blood.

"Not again... damn!"

"We'll have to talk about that later, you can't..." Leo heard himself saying in a rather annoying fatherly voice. Chris, look was darker than any his mad self had thrown at him.

"Don't you dare throw me a sermon, Leo..."

"I..."

"You nothing... and now if you don't mind I must go a traumatise myself a little further." Chris turned to his psico self waving a hand. "Hey you! Crazy outcasted of the Manson family!"

"..._Good or evil, feel the same,_

_Blood of Halliwells, heed your name."_

Lekter Chris shot himself an outraged look but answered nothing, going on with his current affaires.

"_Set my enemies on fire"_

"Yes, you... Damn Sadako wanna be! How are things going in your head? Is it crowded?"

"_put their heads up in a... in a.. in a sp- spi-_" the half witch stuttered in rage. _"...spike,..."_

Adult Chris frowned and leo could only guess that he'd recognised the spell.

"Tell me... have you seen Wyatt lately? Is he doing well? When are you exactly going to kill him?"

Psicho half witch broke the casting in an outraged growl.

"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!"

"You know what's the differences between us? The main ones? Do you mummy's boy?"

With a venomous yell, the Chris directed both hands against his older self with such a hatred that ground left way, rising a thick cloud of dust that vanished to reveal an empty crater.

Leo who for a second had thought Chris dead, looked around, half in relief half wonderment... where the hell was... An orbing dingling hastly followed by a dry THUD made him look up.

Chris was there. Both were. Only that Adult Chris was grabbing an unconscious Psico him.

"The differences..." he was saying. "are age, experience and being bethroted to an assassin that insisted in teaching me some tips, you moron." Carefully getting a safe grip of himself, the half witch orbed back. "See? It wasn't that hard..."

"Then why didn't you do it from the begining?"

"Because I amuse myself in seeing someone beating the crap out of you, Leo."

"Even your not so balanced version called me dad every now and then."

Chris looked at him straight in the eye with a expressionless face but said nothing of it and the elder found himself feeling grateful for that absence of an answer

"We must head back, _Leo,_ because_ mum_ was worried sick and I can wake up at any moment. Plus I could do with some aspirins right now."

* * *

Here it is for now... not that much of a big cliffie... but there''s more to come ASAP. 

By the way,** I may need a beta **(but without the 'may') , so if someone reads this and thinks he/she'd have the time and the will I'd grateful forever and ever and ever...


	19. He's going to be so grounded!

Hiii!

I'm alive and kicking... but I went into the horrible live of the full time working human and got pulled away of my true obligations. Thankfully, miss Rhia Lang who so nicely agreed to beta this piece of work for which I'm absolutly thankful, contacted me through the dark arts you can only find in gmail and I was reminded of my duty here.

Yeah, basically she said HI! and I thought! Oh damn me! I've had the chapter beated in my mail for ages. Shame on me!

And now, for my lovely reviwers:

**Ican'tthinkofanick** I was so glad to read your review!  
Ok... Piper CAN count... I don't XP

**Wonder:** Thanks, I'm sporry it's been so long again > I hope you get to read this.

**Stony Angel**: Aw, thanks for the offer, I needed someone who actually could also help me with the grammar. I hope you like this one too!

**Bhh charmed fangirl: **I loved the way Chris played his older self and the charmed… heh, Modesty is my second name.

**Pinkie Barbie:** Thanks!

**Vampyfreak:** There's just fours Chris, tiny one, mini one, late teens one (also known as Lekter one) and normal one… but there's also foetus Chris, so that counts as the fifth. BDSM is an acronym for Bondage and Sadomasoquism… which is a weird way of feeling pleasure through pain and domination. U

**Korilian: **Yay, i noticed about the triplets/four too late, but thanks. I like psicho Chris too, he's just too crazy for his own good. And about Chris and the voices… I'll get to it, I swear. Thanks for the review and sorry for the delay >

**Rhia:** I'm you humble servant for now on, and besides I thank you very much for your beating.

**Annawel: ** Thanks, i'm glad you liked this I do my best with the english, and I'm pretty prud of how it goes… but I'd like to get the first certificate or something… just for the resumee… well, I'll get to it.

**Night Owl**: i'm updating now… thanks! I'm happy you like it.

**Warriora: **It's been a little more than three months but I've finnally updated Thanks for the offer but I already had a beat (I just lacked time for updatings). I hope you like this new chapter and I swear that I'll try to update again soon.

**Rosalene: **Thanks, i hope you like this one too!

-----------------

Ok, here's the thing… this chapter is far shorter than what I used to do, but I'll try and write shorter chapters to see if this way I can keep an updating schedule. I'm kinda lost with the story because I know where it will end but I'm not sure of what to do in the middle (I mean, I actually forgot about the Shadow demon… and now I have to remember what was in the stake for him) anyway I'd be forever thankful if you could state at least which are the less clear points in the story. Meaning, those things I've not finished explaining… or not explained at all. Because I'm a little lost here!

Thanks for reading (and please, do not hate me for the delay) … I can… i… I may… I offer you the biggest cookie ever in the world. In fact, it's such a big cookie there's just been three bigger cookies in the story of humanity. The first one was cooked by Napoleon chefs one day the emperor was sad because he'd just lost a battle. Napoleon was very fond of cookies, that's a historic (did I just make up a word?) fact. The other was the one I cooked for my last beta and if she reads this I hope she likes it. The third one is the one I cooked and now offer to my new beta, miss Rhia, who I wish enjoys it.

Oh, and I don't usually send this pre-chapter notes to be betaed, so don't blame her for the crappy grammar/ortography.

And now, on with the episoe:

This is how we left good old Leo and good old… young.. older… er… well, Chris…

_Leo who for a second had thought Chris dead, looked around, half in relief half wonderment... where the hell was... An orbing dingling hastly followed by a dry THUD made him look up. _

_Chris was there. Both were. Only that Adult Chris was grabbing an unconscious Psico him. _

_"The differences..." he was saying. "are age, experience and being bethroted to an assassin that insisted in teaching me some tips, you moron." Carefully getting a safe grip of himself, the half witch orbed back. "See? It wasn't that hard..." _

_"Then why didn't you do it from the begining?" _

_"Because I amuse myself in seeing someone beating the crap out of you, Leo." _

_"Even your not so balanced version called me dad every now and then." _

_Chris looked at him straight in the eye with a expressionless face but said nothing of it and the elder found himself feeling grateful for that absence of an answer _

_"We must head back, Leo, because mum was worried sick and I can wake up at any moment. __Plus I could do with some aspirins right now." _

**Today in Charmed…**

Piper was worried sick.

More than that, she was having hysterics and ready to ground her recently found son for life.

He'd bailed on her... They were talking about the spell and what it had caused one moment and the next one he stands, throwing his chair to the ground, and orbs away swearing words she'd better not hear him say again until his 50th birthday

He'd wanted to know more about the spell that had split him in three.

"Four" she'd said.

"Well, yes... mini me, tiny me, me and foetus me... but I wasn't counting bean-Chris..."

"No, no... I meant it... it's four of you, not just mini and tiny but also... er... we could call him 'Lekter' you."

"Lekter me?" it had been a question, but also an statement. "My height? Shorter hair? No beard at all..."

"You don't have a beard at all now..."

"I have a shade!" Chris complaine with a pout.

"The shade of the shade of a single hair is not a beard..." she'd stated, earning a small glare.

"Whatever..." he'd dismissed it. "If I may stress the point, was he slightly younger than me?"

"Well... I'd say he was around eighteen or so and pretty... hum... how can I say it?" What was the correct word for crazy as a cow?

"Psychotic?"

"Yes, that's the word."

Chris had rubbed his eyes, looking tired, his spirit that had somehow been raised for the last half an hour had dropped again. He just wanted to go to sleep, for god sake he was strained... just sleep.

"Was I that bad? He asked, not really wanting an answer.

So tired.

His mother was pregnant, his aunts were away with tiny and mini who wouldn't keep his mouth shut for their lives... well, or maybe they would... god, he couldn't remember how good he was with secrets at seven! He just wished he was really good to avoid Phoebe's continuous questions, his brother was going to turn into the dark side and there was a demon on the loose who could possess any woman he'd want to. No.. he wasn't going to sleep any time soon.

"Well, you... him... er... You tried to kill us because you thought we were shapeshifters..." Piper had explained, not really sure of how much Chris needed to know. "What brings to my mind the subject of why would you be so startled of meeting us, and that leads me into the, I hope wrong, conclusion that we're not around in your future, which would mean that... "

Chris head snapped from the spot in the table he'd been transfixed on.

"It means nothing Piper..." he'd say, his voice strained probably due to the weariness. "You clearly can't just take seriously whatever I say... specially at eighteen."

"Yeah... you weren't all there." She conceded uneasily.

"That's an understatement. I was nuts." Chris smirked. He didn't need anyone trying to lie about his mind being an empty shell of chaos at that time of his life.

_Like you're any better now..._ spatted Bi, and he was able to feel her snorting.

"Yeah... completely nuts." His mother agreed. "But what I wonder is where is your maniac version... I mean, before you changed you were with me, psyco you was with Paige and Phobe... I mean, your aunts, and tiny you told me that he was with... Uh oh... oh, oh… ooooh crap!"

Piper, the one Chris had known and called mother, had always been strongly against cursing in front of her children. As a result she only did it when something very very very bad was happening or about to happen.

This Piper, on the other hand, was more at ease about the subject. So much that Chris had been wondering how she'd have the nerve in the future to chastise him whenever he said something out of tone when her vocabulary at thirty was that of a drunk truck driver.

Maybe not that much.

"Uh oh?" he asked, not rally wanting to hear an answer.

"Tell me Chris..." she tried to say it at easy, to avoid worrying him, probably. Or most possible, to avoid worrying herself. "Exactly how much did you hate Leo when you were eighteen...?"

Chris hesitated, looking ready to use the 'Future consequences' card. But she'd had already met him at seven and at thirteen. It wasn't that hard to guess how things were between him and Leo later.

"Very much." He conceded.

"Very like in--- 'I don't talk to him'? Or very like 'I want to spit down his neck'?"

Very like_ 'I wan't to see you skinned alive and your head attached in a spike so I can put you in the hall, in my apartment, and hang my jacket from there every time I come home..._ he thought, remembering the hatred he'd felt then, the anger, the feeling of absolute despise and how everything was boiling inside with such a force he'd been unable to hear his own voice in it, his own mind trying to get a grip of his emotions. Even those feelings being nothing but memories, he felt everything rising again in his soul and for a minute had to fight to keep the madness down, to stop it from resurfacing again even when a part was willing to release the hold that kept him together and abandon himself into the peace that only oblivion could bring.

The fight was short and quiet, and when he looked again at Piper, she saw nothing of it in his eyes, but was gazing curious at him for he'd been silent.

"Very like... well, very. Why? What's the matter with it?" Chris answered, suddenly curious.

"Well... it's possible that Leo is with you... I mean with your eighteen years old self."

"Oh man... that's..." he'd grinned. "that's bad..." a snort had followed the grin. "That's really really bad... I should... I should go..." _And you could stop snorting, you bad boy._ That was Victor, but the old man's voice wasn't really convincing, it sounded like if he would have been grinning too.

"Go where?" she's asked.

"Don't worry, mum, I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

And he'd left in a hurry. Leaving her alone with the echo of the last words spoken. One was ricocheting in her ear.

He'd said mum.

And she'd hang on that 'mum' for twice the time he'd said he'd be out.

He'd said mum.

But he'd said that half an hour ago. That was fifteen times what he'd said he'd be away.

One thousand eight hundred seconds.

One hundred eight thousand milliseconds.

Six million four hundred eighty thousand nanoseconds.

Three hundred eighty eight and... uh... er... something else tiny mili nano ultra little seconds (what? I don't even know what word goes here in Spanish, how am I supposed to know it in English?).

In fact it was already thirty two minutes now and going...

Blue lights, blue balls, dingling and all that stuff later, Chris was there with Leo and his unconscious younger self.

The moment they'd appeared she'd jumped from the chair with a mix of anger and relief.

"What... what happened? Why didn't you come home earlier? Where were you? Why is he unconscious? Did you know about him? Are you okay? Is he okay? Where were you?"

Chris raised a hand to stop her, he was smiling, but the mirth didn't reached his eyes and his face was tense, tired of the effort of keeping up that smile. That had been a pretty insightful thought, Piper thought bewildered, and probably most of it caused by my mind overreacting at the late news. Focus, Piper, focus.

Chris was asking something.

"...those questions were directed to me?"

"Sorry?"

"I asked which of those questions where for me..."

The witch thought of it.

"The first, the third, the fourth, the sixth, and the seventh..."

"I found Leo and Lekter me. In the zoo. I knocked him off. I'm in need of aspirins and coffee. He is okay."

"The rest of the questions were for you, Leo..." she said to her ex-husband who was looking rather absent.

"Uh?"

He was, indeed, rather absent.

"Where were you, Leo?"

"Oh... the zoo is closed today, so I thought it would be a good idea to go there to keep Chris occupied while I thought of a way to calm him down."

"The zoo?" Chris snorted. "You thought the zoo would keep me busy? What was I supposed to do? Whatch the dolphins? Throw peanuts to the elephants?"

"I thought it was a good place where I could... i don't know what I was thinking, it's not like I have to run away from my psychotic son every day!" the elder said slightly angry at Chris constant bickering, he should have thought better his words.

"So you knew?" Piper voice was reaching high pitch limits "So you knew? SO YOU KNEEEEEW?"

Leo wished elder powers included retreating in time. They didn't.

"I- I- knew what, honey?"

"Don't honey me, you... you traitor! You knew about Chris and you didn't tell me?"

"You know about him?" Leo turned to the half witch who wasn't trying to hide a smug smile. "You told her? How could you?"

"Excuse me? What does that mean? Why couldn't he tell me?" Piper had both hands in her hips now and if glares could kill Leo'd be six feet under ground and going down.

"He told me not to tell you! He said... he..." the elder turned to his son for support."Tell her that... " but Chris wasn't there anymore. "Chris?"

"I'll be in the attic..." the half whitelighter said from the stairs where he was carrying his younger self instead of orbing him for some reason we'll never know. "... placing myself between some protection stones..." and disappeared in the second floor.

"But tell her what you told me!" Leo pleaded to the empty space Chris had left behind.

"Leo---"

"Uh..." the dead man looked at his ex-wife, fearing he was going to become deader any second now. But Piper was quite calm.

"So you knew..."

"Yes... when you were possessed he called you mum, and Wyatt orbed next to him to protect him..."

"So, basically, our nearly two years old son has known this even before we did..." Piper stated allowing herself a grin that Leo mirrored. "That doesn't says much about us..."

A little more at ease, both sat in the coach.

"Our first son is the source of all evil and the second one is a neurotic..."

"..and psychotic, we can safely say he is a little psychotic too..."

"...so he is a neurotic and a psychotic freak..." Piper added with a moan of frustration. "We're such a horrible parents..."

"C'mon, Piper... don't be so hard on yourself..." he put a tentative hand in her shoulder, and she didn't push it away.

"I was mean to him." She said, shaking her head.

"Well, I told him we weren't family."

"I threw him out his own house."

"I attacked him with a sword..."

"When?"

"While we were looking for you in Valhalla."

"Oh... " Piper looked downcast for a moment, but not for long. "Nevertheless, I slapped him!"

"And I broke his arm!"

"And I can't believe you two are actually fighting about who's a worse parent." Chris said walking down the stairs. "Not when there's still a demon to vanquish, a brother to save, lots of innocents in danger and all that stuff... You should feel so ashamed."

As he left his parents at loose of words, and therefor proved that he was still able to do so, Chris added. "I'm off to P3 to grab the girls and my other me's before someone spills too many secrets."

----

I hope you liked this!


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